


Room For You

by Leaves_of_Laurelin



Series: Room For You [1]
Category: Frozen (Disney Movies)
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Biphobia / Homophobia, Bisexuality, Coming Out, Conversations on consent, Drug Use, F/M, Just a bit of pot - no hard drugs, M/M, Multi, Non-exclusive relationships, Polyamory, Quick burns for the twosomes, References to being outed, Romance, Slow burn for the threesome, Smut, Strong Language, Struggles with sexual identity, Threesome - F/M/M, Underage Drinking, safe sex
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:40:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 46
Words: 201,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24120727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leaves_of_Laurelin/pseuds/Leaves_of_Laurelin
Summary: Freshman Anna wants to make friends, trulyexperiencecollege, and not think too hard about if she’s picked the right major. Sophomore Hans wants to play lacrosse, have a different guy or girl in his bed every night, and otherwise be left alone. And senior Kristoff just wants to get through this last semester without distractions so he can graduate and finally start his life.But sometimes what we think we want and what we actually need are two different things.
Relationships: Anna/Hans (Disney), Anna/Hans/Kristoff (Disney), Anna/Kristoff (Disney), Hans/Kristoff (Disney)
Series: Room For You [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2070768
Comments: 525
Kudos: 162





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the first day of class for Anna, Hans, and Kristoff.

Anna’s alarm blared, waking her from her deep sleep. She groaned and fumbled for her phone somewhere in the bed before sitting up and rubbing her eyes. She looked across the room and saw her roommate’s empty bed. Rebecca had already left for the day. She had an 8:00am class on these days and Anna didn’t need to get up until 8:30am. 

Anna groaned as she hopped down from her lofted bed. She picked up her shower caddy and trudged her way down the hall to the bathroom at the other end of the floor. 

When she started college at the beginning of last semester, Anna had such hopeful ideas about what things would be like with a roommate. She thought she’d be getting a new best friend. She imagined that they would get ready together before going out on weekends, maybe sharing makeup and trading cute tops. They would gossip together and walk arm in arm to campus events and pull all nighters together during finals. Maybe one of them would have a night where they’d need to get over a heartbreak from some jerk of a boy, and so they would stay up all night eating ice cream and watching silly romcoms. 

Reality was quite different though. 

It wasn’t that she and Rebecca didn’t get along. Rebecca was a nice enough girl. They just, barely ever saw each other. Their class schedules didn’t line up at all last semester and it seemed like they weren’t going to this year either. On top of that, Rebecca drove home every weekend to be with her high school boyfriend. Over two hours all the way back home to where she grew up just outside of Albany.

Most people who came into college still attached to a boyfriend or girlfriend from high school ended up single before Halloween. So, Anna had just assumed that it was only a matter of time. But, here it was, the start of spring semester and Rebecca and Robert were apparently just as deeply in love as ever before. 

Anna returned to her room and began to get ready for the day. She knew that by mid-semester she’d probably be back to wearing pajamas to morning classes, but it was the first week back so she decided to make somewhat of an effort. 

Dark jeans, a nice sweater, and a pair of mid-calf boots to help navigate the snow still on the ground. A cute outfit, she thought, as she looked at herself in the mirror. But, it being winter in upstate New York, she’d need to cover it all up with a giant coat. She frowned slightly but was snapped out of it by a loud knock at her door.

“Anna!” Ryder’s voice called from the other side. “Come on, I’m starving!”

“Coming!” Anna shouted back, scrambling to gather up her things. 

She took her sketchbook off her bed, shoving it down into her bag next to her school books, and headed off. 

~

“What classes do you have today?” Ryder asked as he shoveled a forkful of scrambled eggs in his mouth.

Arendelle University’s freshman dining hall was bustling with activity and most of the green and purple tables were full, but Anna and Ryder had been able to snag one just for themselves. 

“Um,” Anna pulled out her printed out schedule. “First off is Introduction to Decision Making in Management.”

A name so dull that Anna felt she might nod off halfway through just reading it. How boring would the actual class be then?

“Somefing for y’ur major?” he asked around a full month. 

“Yeah,” she responded, scrunching up her nose. She had hoped to fill up her whole freshman year with just gen ed classes and put off any classes for her major until next year, but this is how her schedule worked out. Her other class of the day was Western Civ, so hopefully that would be more interesting.

Ryder swallowed. “You seem excited,” he said sarcastically.

She shrugged. “So, spring semester, that means lacrosse will be starting up, right?” Anna asked, looking to change the subject.

Ryder’s eyes lit up at that. “Yeah, I’m excited to get to know the guys. And even though there is already a goalie on the team, he’s a senior so that means I’ll only need to be a backup for one year.”

Anna finished her waffle as she listened to Ryder go on about lacrosse. Once the season started up she was going to make sure to go to some of the home games. She’d never seen a lacrosse game in her life -- and didn’t fully understand what the rules of the game were despite Ryder’s attempts to explain it to her -- but it was always fun to go cheer on Arendelle U among her fellow students. 

~

Between classes Anna found a spot at a table in the library and pulled out her sketchbook. She knew she should probably get a head start on studying instead. Get out ahead of things this semester. Her grades last semester were… less than great. Less than what she knew she could do. But, it was only the first week of classes. She didn’t _need_ to get started on classwork today. Besides, she was really happy with the way this drawing was coming along. 

~

As she entered the classroom for Western Civ, Anna looked around to see if there were any familiar faces. No such luck. So, she found a random seat near the back of the room and began to take out her books. 

There was a guy already sitting in the seat to the right of her. He seemed a bit older, but these gen ed classes only ever had freshmen and sophomores. So, it was probably just his size that was making him seem that way. He was enormous, dwarfing the desk he was sitting in, tall and broad in the shoulders. He was handsome, she thought, even with the scowl on his face. Anna found herself staring at his hands as he tapped his pen against his book.

The professor starting up class finally drew her attention away.

Sometime after the class had started someone quietly slipped into the desk on her left. It was the movement out of the corner of her eye that caused her glance over at the guy who had just sat down, but it was the way he looked that stopped her from turning away. He was… very good looking. Sharp features and light eyes. He had red hair, but a darker shade than her own. And he was dressed nice and wore a lacrosse jacket. Anna wondered if Ryder knew him. 

Before she even had a chance to realize that she was staring at the guy, he looked up at her. Embarrassment hit her then, and she felt herself begin to blush. 

But he just grinned and whispered. “Hey.”

Anna gave him a small nod in response and returned her attention to the front of the room. _Focus, Anna_ , she scolded herself.

“I’ll be assigning you into groups of three,” the professor announced, “For each unit there will be an assignment due and you’ll need to complete it _together_ with your group.”

This was great, Anna thought. She didn’t know anyone in this class, so a group project meant new people to meet. 

The professor then began to count off, “One, two, three. One two, three,” Pointing at students as he went. The groups were being assigned by who they were already sitting next to, she realized. Finally, the professor got to her row. “One,” he pointed at the guy with the large hands that was sitting to her right, “two,” he pointed at her, and “three,” he pointed at the guy with the nice eyes that was sitting to her left.

Anna bit down on her lip, trying to contain her smile. 

{ ~ }

“Do you want me to walk you back to your place?” Hans asked Ryan. 

It was Ryan, right? Or was it Brian? Didn’t matter. It was past 2:00am and whatever-his-name-is wasn’t going to be sleeping here. 

“Nah, I’m good,” the guy said as he rebuckled his belt.

They finished getting dressed in silence and Hans walked him out the bedroom and through the common area of the suite. 

“Hey,” Hans said as they got to the front door, stepping close to the guy and kissing him. After breaking the kiss Hans ran a thumb across the guy’s lower lip, “I’ll see you around?”

The guy smiled and nodded at that. Hans didn’t actually care if he saw him again, but it was always beneficial to plant that seed. After Ryan or Brian was finally gone Hans turned around to see one of his suitemates, Torres, coming out of the bathroom. There were four other guys, all his teammates, in the suite they had in the sophomore residence hall. Two doubles rooms and a single with a common living and kitchen area. He’d rather live completely alone, of course, but this was infinitely better than living in dorms like he had last year. Luckily, he had been able to snag the single room. 

Well, he had cheated when they drew straws for it. But, he was lucky that they didn’t catch that. 

“Starting early this semester, huh Westergaard?” his teammate asked in an amused tone. 

Hans just shrugged and headed back to his room, knowing that he needed to be awake again in a few hours. 

~

His first stop of the day was the athletic center. Spring semester meant the start of lacrosse season and a stricter workout schedule. Today it was lifting in the weight room followed by four miles on the treadmill. He always preferred to run outside, but it was cold as shit out right now. 

Fucking upstate winters. 

~

By the time Hans got to his only class of the day, Western Civ, it had already started.

” _Shit_ ,” he mumbled as he slipped into the first empty seat he could find, doing his best to not be noticed. But as he began to open up his bag to find his books, he felt eyes on him. 

Hans looked to his right to see a girl staring at him. Her expression quickly changed, seemingly embarrassed that he had just caught her checking him out. 

“Hey,” he whispered with a grin. 

She gave a small nod and quickly looked back to the front of the room. She was cute, Hans thought. Big eyes and long red hair done over each shoulder in braids. His eyes wandered down to admire the rest of her. 

“I’ll be assigning you into groups of three,” the professor announced, “For each unit there will be an assignment due and you’ll need to complete it _together_ with your group.”

Hans groaned. 

{ ~ }

Kristoff’s alarm went off at 7:00am and he began his normal morning routine. Shower, dress, into the kitchen for breakfast. He reviewed flashcards while making eggs and then looked over his schedule as he ate. Three classes today plus some work-study hours in Professor Oaken’s office. He could probably get some library time in between his first and second classes too, he thought. 

He checked the weather on his phone. Another chilly day, but nothing that he wasn’t used to. Back in his bedroom Kristoff buttoned a flannel shirt up over his tee, then a zip hoodie over that, and finally his old, worn leather jacket. He double checked that he had all the books he needed in his bag for the day before slipping on his salt stained boots. 

Kristoff pulled up his hood against the cold as he locked his apartment door behind him and began his four block walk to campus. 

~

“Have a good winter break, Kristoff?”

He looked up from papers to see Maren settling into the seat next to him. They were the same year and major and naturally had had classes together each semester since he transferred to Arendelle University. So, he wasn’t surprised to see her in one of his classes again this semester. They weren’t really friends or anything, but they saw each other enough to know names and engage in basic small talk. 

“Good, fine,” Kristoff mumbled before returning his attention to the reading he was trying to get in before class started. 

After a beat he remembered not to be rude and looked back over to her. “Um, you?”

“Good,” She said with a smile, more amused than annoyed, “fine.”

~

Kristoff chewed at the inside of his cheek as he packed up his bag at the end of his second class. He was starting to think this one might end up being the hardest one he’d be taking this semester. He’d have to rethink how much time he was going to budget each week to study and do work for it. But it would be ok, he could manage it. And it was one of Professor Oaken’s classes. He was always willing to give Kristoff extra time during his office hours. 

It would be fine. 

He just hated how things had worked out with his schedule. Kristoff had planned to have a full slate of classes this semester, and strictly ones related to his major. Well, that’s what he had _planned_ at least. Kristoff had spent over an hour arguing with his academic advisor at the end of last semester when they had told him he still needed one more general education class in order to graduate. Apparently, the credits that he had transferred over from NCCC weren’t enough, but his advisor hadn’t bothered to tell him that sooner. But there was nothing to be done. He needed to take this extra class or else he wouldn’t be able to graduate. Which, obviously, wasn’t an option. 

That’s how he found himself sitting in a 100 level Western Civ class, surrounded by freshman and sophomores. Some of them looked not much older than high schoolers. Which, well, was actually pretty accurate, wasn’t it? At least it shouldn’t be a particularly _hard_ class. It wouldn’t end up taking up too much of his time, he tried to reassure himself. 

“I’ll be assigning you into groups of three,” the professor announced, “For each unit, there will be an assignment due and you’ll need to complete it _together_ with your group.”

 _Fuck._

~

After class was over, Kristoff stood in the hallway with his two assigned partners - Anna Bell and Hans Westergaard, he had learned - as they exchanged numbers. 

Group assignments. For the whole semester. Just great. What a waste of his time. 

“We should get started right away,” Anna said, sounding strangely cheerful. “How about tomorrow?”

“Uh, yeah, tomorrow works,” Kristoff mumbled, not looking up from his phone and he finished saving their information into his contacts.

Hans shrugged, seemingly in agreement. 

“Great! We’ll text and figure out a time that works best for all of us,” She looked at them expectantly, but when neither said anything she continued on, “Okaaay, well, see you guys tomorrow!” 

She gave them a wave and bounded off. Kristoff watched her as she left. He didn’t think he had ever met someone so excited about a group project before. He knew he always hated them. He’d rather just do it all on his own, even if it meant extra work. He felt an elbow in his side then. He looks over to see Hans grinning at him like a fox. 

“Freshman girls, _amiright_?” he said with a wink and a head nod in Anna’s direction. 

Kristoff scoffed, shoving his phone back into his pocket. It was then that he noticed the logo on Hans’s jacket. Why were lacrosse players always such douchebags? 

Hans tilted his head to the side, giving him a curious look. “No?”

Kristoff didn’t answer, just turned and trudged off in the opposite direction.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A big THANK YOU to Molly, Liv, Melissa, Gabi, and Melanie who have helped me brainstorm ideas and for giving me the confidence to take on a story like this.
> 
> Credit to ffc1cb on tumblr whose beautiful art is what originally gave me the idea to write a Kristhanna college au. 
> 
> One formatting note in case it wasn’t clear: A ~ means a change in scene and a {~} means a change in POV
> 
> Finally, I’ve created a playlist for this fic which can be found here.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anna, Hans, and Kristoff meet to work on their assignment.

Anna rubbed her hands together to warm them as she entered the library. She walked to the group study area near the back of the first floor where they had planned to meet. There were rows of square tables, each with four chairs, and Anna could see that Kristoff was already sitting at one of them. He was faced away from her, but despite only having met him once she knew those shoulders and mop of blond hair couldn’t belong to anybody else. 

“Hi, Kristoff!” she said with a smile as she approached the table. 

“Hey,” he looked up at her briefly, not returning the smile.

It seemed like he had been there for a while already. There were books and papers all around his side of the table and he was going through a textbook with both pen and highlighter. 

“You excited to get started?” she asked as she sat down diagonally from him. 

“Yeah,” he responded, but his tone had a touch of sarcasm in it. 

Anna slipped off her coat and took out her book for their class. They sat in silence for some time. 

“Cold out, huh?” she asked eventually.

“Not so bad,” he said with a slight shrug and kept on reading. 

Then they were back to silence. 

Anna checked the time on her phone. Hans was late. She thought about pulling out her sketchbook to pass the time. But she should probably do actual school work instead, right? 

She looked over at Kristoff as he read and occasionally underlined or highlighted something. He seemed really serious about his school work. He’d probably think she was immature if she did take out her sketchbook. Like a little kid coloring a placemat at a restaurant because they don’t have the patience to just sit and wait for their food. 

Finally - and almost 15 minutes late - Hans arrived, plopping himself down in a chair across the table from Kristoff. He had sunglasses on, despite the fact they were indoors, and he was holding an iced coffee, despite the fact that it was winter. 

“Nice of you to join us,” Kristoff said dryly. 

“Why did we agree to do this so early?” Hans groaned. 

“It’s 9:30,” Kristoff looked down at his phone. “Nope, actually, 9:45.”

“Right, but on a Friday.”

“Friday is a school day. Not like it’s the weekend or anything,” Kristoff began putting away what he was working on and taking out his book for Western Civ. 

“The weekend starts on Thursday,” he said matter-of-factly, taking a sip of his coffee. 

Kristoff narrowed his eyes and glared across the table at him. 

Anna tapped her hands nervously as she looked back and forth between the two. Bit of a bad start for their little group. But that’s ok. She could fix it. 

“You know,” she said, leaning forward and giving each of them a smile, “I read this thing once where it said that teenagers’ brains don’t actually, property functions until, like, 11:30 in the morning. So, it’s really not our fault if we feel kind of tired and foggy in the morning.”

“Nah,” Hans said, taking a sip of his coffee. “I’m just hung over.”

“And I’m not a teenger,” Kristoff added.

“You’re not?” Anna looked at him curious. She had been right about him being older then. “How old are you?”

“Twenty-three.”

“Twenty-three? What year are you?”

“Senior. We should get started,” he gestured at his Western Civ book. 

“Did you take a gap year?” She pressed, leaning in his direction. “My sister Elsa did one of those. She went to Europe.”

Hans lifted his sunglasses up to the top of his head. “Elsa?”

“No, no gap year,” Kristoff said, avoiding eye contact. 

“But then why-,“

“Wait, hold on,” Hans fully turned his body to face Anna, placing a hand down on the table in between them. “You said your last name is Bell, right?”

“Yeah,” Anna answered, hesitant from his tone. 

“Elsa Bell is your _sister_?”

“You know Elsa?” 

“Oh, yeah,” he laughed, dropping his sunglasses down into place and leaning back in his chair. “I know her. That ice queen fucking _hates_ me.”

“We’re here to work on the assignment,” Kristoff grumbled. “Not to listen to you talk about your conquests.”

“Conquests?” Hans fully took his sunglasses off this time. “Why are you assuming that someone who hates me must be someone that I once fucked?”

Kristoff shrugged one shoulder. “Just a hunch.”

“Ok,” Hans leaned forward, pointing across the table. “First of all, rude. Second of all, wrong.”

“Yeah, no, he’s right,” Anna interjected. “My sister definitely never slept with him. She’s gay. And has a girlfriend.”

“See?” Hans gestured at Anna while giving Kristoff a smug look before putting his sunglasses on again and leaning back in his chair. 

Kristoff ran a hand down his face. “Fine, whatever. I don’t actually care who slept with who. I just want to get this work done.”

“Great,” Hans said in a matching tone, pulling out his own book. “Let’s stop wasting time then.”

Anna saw Kristoff clench and unclench a fist, but he didn’t say anything.

They worked for a while without any further arguments. But Anna could still sense the tension at the table. She always hated this feeling. It swirled uneasy in her stomach, her toes curling and uncurling in her boots. 

“So, where are you guys from?” Anna asked, hoping to get them onto a safe topic of conversation. 

“Long Island,” Hans said. 

“Malone,” Kristoff added. 

Hans moved his sunglasses down to the tip of his nose so he could peer over them. “Where the hell is _that_?”

“Franklin county,” Kristoff offered, but as Anna and Hans continued to stare at him blankly he sighed. “It’s… really far north.”

Anna chewed on her lip, going through a mental Rolodex of places she knew in the northern parts of the state. “Is it near Lake George? I’ve gone skiing up there with my family.”

“Ah, no,” he let out a short laugh. “It’s about two and half hours north of Lake George.”

“I didn’t know you _could_ go two and half hours north of Lake George and not be in, you know, Canada,” Hans said. 

Kristoff pinched the bridge of his nose. “Well. You can.”

Hans shrugged and pushed his sunglasses back up.

“I’m from the city,” Anna looked back and forth between the two. “If anyone cares.”

Silence. 

Apparently they didn’t. 

{ ~ }

This group work was turning out to be even more painful than Kristoff had feared. Anytime they would start to make some progress on the assignment, Anna would interrupt them with some asinine questions. They’d get a good stretch of work done, and Kristoff would think that they were in the clear, when...

“Any siblings?”

“No,” Kristoff said, hopeful that one-word answers would start giving her a hint. 

“Twelve.”

Anna and Kristoff’s heads both snapped over in Hans’s direction. 

“You have _twelve_ siblings?” Anna asked with some shock. 

“Yeah,” Hans said as he took another sip of his coffee, his expression unreadable behind his sunglasses.

Kristoff shook his head and looked back down at his books. “No he doesn’t. He’s messing with us.”

“Are you permanently in a bad mood?” Hans asked. “Or is it only most of the time?”

“I’m _not_ -,” Kristoff ran a hand roughly through his hair. “I’m not in a bad mood, I just don’t get why we keep stopping our work to play a game of twenty questions. Let’s just work and be done.”

Everyone was quiet for a moment before Anna sighed. “Fine. I just figured that since we’re going to have to work together for the _whole_ semester that we could, you know, at least get to know each other and be frien...dly.”

She caught herself, but Kristoff could tell that she had definitely been about to say ‘friends’. 

“Or at least be fucking _civil_ with each other. But it’s fine. We can just,” she pointed down at her book, “do the assignment.”

Her tone wasn’t angry, more disappointed and a bit embarrassed. She put her head down and began to work again.

Kristoff twisted his pen around in his hands as he watched her. Anna was right. The three of them were going to have to work together all semester. His first instincts might have been to just write Anna off as annoying and Hans off as a douchebag. Two downstate rich kids that he was going to be forced to put up with. But where did that actually get him? Perhaps it _was_ better to spend the time to be friendly now so that in the future they could work together civilly. And, hopefully, that would mean getting their work done more efficiently. 

Also, shit, she wasn’t annoying, not _really_. She was just trying to make some friends. She had been so happy and hopeful just a few moments ago. But now, here she was, head ducked low as she wrote away. He could see her forehead was creased. 

Hans seemed to notice too. He had taken his sunglasses off and placed them down on the table, his mouth a thin straight line as he looked over at her. 

Their eyes met across the table. 

Hans gestured over to Anna with a ‘now look what you did’ expression on his face. 

Kristoff held up his hands defensively and silently mouthed, ‘What?’

‘Be nice,’ Hans mouthed back. 

Kristoff huffed. How did he get to a point where Hans of all people was looking at _him_ as if _he_ were the asshole at the table? Kristoff went to respond to him when Anna raised her head. 

“For number five-,” she stopped her question short and looked back and forth between the two of them. A bit of uneasiness crept onto her face as she seemed to realize that something had been going on she wasn’t aware of. 

_Shit._ He didn’t want her to think they were making fun of her or anything like that. 

“Um,” Kristoff cleared his throat, trying to think of a question Anna hadn’t asked already. “What’s everyone’s major?” 

“Economics,” Hans answered quickly, giving Kristoff an approving nod. 

Anna sat up straighter and moved her hands into her lap. “Business Administration.” Her smile returned, a silent thank you. 

“Computer engineering for me,” Kristoff said, smiling back at her. 

“Oh,” her eyebrows went up slightly. “That’s a hard one.”

“Yeah, uh,” he scratched at his neck. “It can be.”

“What is it exactly?” Hans asked, and for the first time there was a vague hint of sincerity in his voice.

“It’s like a blend of computer science and electrical engineering,” Kristoff explained. 

The three of them sat and talked for some time. Nothing deep, just about classes, which food spots on campus were the best and which professors were the worst. But Kristoff could feel the earlier tension begin to melt away. They finished up the assignment eventually. While it ended up taking longer than Kristoff had originally planned, it didn’t really matter. He still made it to his next class on time. 

~

It was already evening by the time Kristoff got back to his apartment. He dropped his bag down with a thud as he took off his jacket and kicked off his boots. 

As he sat and ate his ramen noodle dinner, he read the syllabus for one of his tougher classes once again, mentally plotting out the semester. After dinner, Kristoff sat down in the center of his couch with a beer and turned on the TV. He spent a few hours occasionally flicking around, allowing his brain to go numb. He turned it off around 10:30pm and began to get ready for bed. Moving out of his jeans and into some sweatpants, turning off the lights and settling himself under the covers.

Kristoff drove delivery for a pizza place around the corner on Saturday nights. Being so close to campus meant the place had a steady stream of deliveries to drunk college kids the whole night. It put good money in his pocket but it also kept him up past 3am. So, on Friday nights he always made sure to go to bed at a reasonable hour. 

Laying in bed and looking up into the darkness, his thoughts drifted back to the library earlier that day. The way Anna had smiled when he had brought the conversation back to getting to know each other. He felt good about making her smile like that. 

She was cute. 

She was a freshman, he reminded himself. 

He thought about what Hans had said yesterday. His gross comment about _freshman girls_. Kristoff didn’t want to be a creep like that. It didn’t really matter anyway. He didn’t have time for a girlfriend. This semester was too important. He needed to graduate. That had to be his only focus. He’d have time later. Once he graduated and got a good job and made a secure life for himself, then he would have time for things like that. 

As Kristoff drifted off to sleep he could hear the sounds of students walking by out on the street, just starting their nights.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s the first Saturday night of the semester and Anna is looking for some company.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick reminder regarding the tags and rating.

“How do I look in this?” Anna asked as she inspected herself in the full-length mirror. She wore a dark, patterned dress that fell about mid-thigh with thick black tights underneath - because of the cold - and a pair of ankle boots. She wanted to make sure she looked good tonight. 

“Great,” Ryder answered, not looking up from his phone. 

She rolled her eyes. It was the first Saturday night of the semester and he clearly didn’t understand the importance. 

As per what had become their ritual, Ryder was waiting in her room for her and everyone else in their larger group to finish getting ready before they headed out for the night. They had a group of friends that lived in their dorm, girls from her floor and guys from his, that they would always go out with. She smiled thinking back to all their adventures, and some misadventures, from the fall semester. 

Most nights she was perfectly content to come back to the dorms in the wee hours of the morning, stumbling and laughing with her friends, and then pass out alone in her bed. But, Anna was in a bit of a dry spell. And she was going to do her darndest to not be alone in bed tonight. 

Anna wondered what Kristoff did on Saturday nights. He didn’t seem like the house party type. Maybe more of a getting a beer down at The Trading Post kind of guy? For a split second she had the wild idea of texting him to find out. But, no, that was crazy. Barely knowing him and just texting him out of the blue like that? No. The potential embarrassment made her cringe. 

“Ryder,” Anna began, trying to sound casual. “Do you know a guy on your team named Hans?”

He did look up from his phone this time. “Westergaard?”

“Yeah,” Anna said, making eye contact with him through the mirror. 

“I mean, I’ve met him. But I haven’t really had the chance to, ya know, get to know everyone on the team yet,” he looked down at his phone, but then back up. “How do _you_ know him?”

“We got assigned to a group project in Western Civ,” Anna picked up her brush and began to run it through the ends of her hair even though it didn’t need it. “Do you think he’ll be there tonight? I mean, the party is at the lacrosse house so everyone from the team will probably be there, right? Even if they don’t live at that house?” Anna wasn’t exactly sure where Hans lived, but she knew he was a sophomore and that students couldn’t live off campus until their junior year. 

“Yeah, probably,” Ryder said with some caution. “But, just so you know, he has a bit of a reputation.” 

Anna put her brush down, turning to face him. “I can handle myself.”

Ryder smiled and looked back at his phone. “I know you can.”

~

The house was already full of people by the time they arrived, shoulder to shoulder in some places. A sea of red solo cups. To the left was a large living room. There were couches full of people on one side and people dancing to music over on the other. In front of her was a hallway leading back to the kitchen. To the right was a room that was probably meant to be a dining room, but had a beer pong table in the center of it.

Anna casually looked around as she moved into the house. That’s when she spotted him, over in the crowd of people dancing. Hans was dressed nice and he looked good. Really good. She continued to watch him as she slipped off her coat, but he didn’t see her. She noticed then that person he seemed to be dancing with was a guy. Maybe a friend of his or...oop, no, now they were kissing. 

_Well_ , Anna thought, _that’s that I guess_. 

She followed Ryder and her other friends back to the kitchen to get a beer from the keg.

~

Anna sighed as she stood in the dining room and swirled her beer around in her cup. She had somehow found herself trapped in a conversation with a guy who was currently providing her with a very detailed listing of everything that was wrong with _The Last Jedi_.

“No, yeah, totally,” she said at random intervals. 

He was… fine looking? She guessed. Not great, but also not the worst she’d ever had. But, _christ_ , he was boring. 

Anna scanned the room, looking for a means of escape that wouldn’t be too rude. Ryder was chatting up a girl with short blonde hair that she recognized to be exactly his type. She sighed, not about to break friend code and go over and interrupt. 

That’s when she spotted Hans again. He was still over in the living room, but was alone now. Leaning back against a wall, he had a cup in his hand and was looking across the house in her general direction. 

Anna quickly turned back to her annoying film critic companion. She didn’t want Hans to catch her staring at him. Again. She bit her lip thinking back to the first time they met in class. But, after a few moments, she felt something pulling her to look back, so she did. He was still there, looking. This time he gave her a knowing smile before taking a sip of his beer, maintaining eye contact over the rim of his cup. Anna felt a tingle down her spine. Ok, so maybe _that_ wasn’t _that_ after all. She suddenly didn’t care about being rude.

“I’m, uh, going to go get a refill,” she mumbled without looking at the guy and left. 

“Oh, ok,” she heard him say as she walked away. 

Hans kept his eyes on her as she moved through the crowd towards him. When she reached him, she stood next to him along the wall and he turned to face her. 

“Hey,” she said. 

“Hey yourself,” he responded. Being closer to the music meant that they needed to talk in a loud, not-quite-shouting volume. 

“What brings you here tonight?” he asked. 

“I have a friend on the team, Ryder Nattura.”

“Ah, our new backup goalie,” Hans took a sip of his beer. “You here _with_ him?”

“No,” Anna said. “not _with_ him.”

He smiled at her. “That’s good.”

Anna already knew how this night was going to end. She could make it easy on him and just take him by the hand and head back to her dorm room now. But where was the fun in that? 

“You look good,” he said, leaning closer to her. 

“You look… better than you did yesterday,” she teased. “Though I guess nobody looks their best hungover in the library.”

Hans laughed. “No, I guess not.”

Anna took another sip of her beer, curious to see what his next move would be. 

“What’s this?” He asked, reaching up to the spot in her hair where a white streak cut through the red. 

“I was born with it,” she said, leaving out the part about her having dreams about kissing trolls. Not exactly sexy. 

“I like it,” Han let his fingers trace down the strands of her hair, past her shoulder, but pulling away before reaching anywhere inappropriate. 

“Who was that guy you were talking to?” Hans motioned his head in the direction of the dining room.

“No one interesting,” Anna took another sip of her drink. “Who was that person _you_ were with before?”

“No one interesting,” He repeated her words back to her with a grin. 

“Hmm,” she hummed. “I saw you dancing with them.”

“I’d rather be dancing with you.” He stepped slightly closer to her.

“I saw you kissing them too.”

Hans brushed her cheek with the back of his knuckles and leaned in closer. “I’d rather be kissing you.”

Did lines like that ever actually work on anyone? 

Anna knew guys that talked this smooth from the jump never actually meant what they were saying. They’d just use any sweet words they could in order to get someone into bed. It was a mistake to ever take anything they said as truth, to trust them with your heart. 

But Anna wasn’t looking for a boyfriend. And she’d consider herself lucky if all of her mistakes were this gorgeous. 

She placed a hand on his chest and tilted her chin up -- an invitation -- and watched as Hans closed his eyes and leaned in. When his lips were just about to touch hers she smiled and whispered. “Let’s dance.”

He froze, eyes blinking open. “What?”

“You said you wanted to dance with me,” Anna put her drink down, took hold of his hand, and began to walk them across the room. “So let’s dance.”

Anna knew they both wanted the same thing. But Hans didn’t need to know that yet. 

~

With each passing song Anna could see the desire growing in Hans’s eyes. And she was feeling the same. Being this close to him meant she could see the exact shade of green of his eyes, could feel the hardness of his muscles under his shirt. He smelled woodsy, with a faint sweetness she couldn’t quite place.

She turned around and his hands planted firmly on her hips. His breath ghosted across her neck as they swayed back and forth. She rolled her hips backwards into him and his hands tightened, gathering up some of the fabric of her dress. 

“You want to get out of here?” he asked, his voice low and heavy in her ear. 

Anna turned back around in his arms. “Yes.”

They collected their coats and headed for the door. Anna clocked Ryder’s eye line and gave him a small salute, their signal to each other that they were finding their own way home that night. Ryder returned the gesture with a small shake of his head before turning back to the girl he was chatting up. 

The cold air of the night sent a chill down her body as they stepped out of the house. Anna pulled her coat tight as they headed for the sidewalk. 

“So, where are we going?” Anna asked. 

“I’m over in Isle Hall,” Hans offered. 

“Well, to my dorm then. It’s closer.” 

“It’s after 11 though,” Hans noted, putting his arm around her and placing a hand on her hip as they walked. Unlike the sophomore residence halls, the freshmen dorms had rules about visitors after 11:00pm. 

“You know how to sneak in,” she responded, more a statement than a question. 

Hans grinned. “Of course.”

~

Anna entered Castle Hall through its main doors, flashing her ID to the person at the front desk. She climbed up a flight of stairs, but passed by her room, going instead to the window at the far end of the floor. She opened it and peered out. When Hans saw her he gave a small wave before beginning to climb up a pipe that ran along the brick wall of the building. Anna held out a hand to help him through the window and then they quickly hurried down the hall to her room. 

“Roommate?” Hans asked as they entered her dark room. 

“Away for the weekend,” Anna confirmed, walking deeper into her room and plugging in the string lights that she had hung up around her bed. 

She took off her coat and turned back around to face Hans. He was still standing near the door. He took off his coat as well and she watched as his eyes moved up and down her. He then moved towards her, slowly, coming to stand as close to her as possible and placing his hands on her upper arms. She could see the reflection of the string lights in his eyes, and it gave them a dreamy appearance. 

Hans did nothing further, seemingly waiting for her to make the next move. She remembered then, her teasing back the party when she had stopped them just short of a kiss. 

Even here, standing alone with her in front of her bed, he wasn’t risking another rejection. 

Anna pressed up onto her toes and met his mouth with hers. He kissed her back, leaning into it and allowing her to sink back down onto her heels. 

It wasn’t long before they were up on her bed, few words passing between them as their clothes ended up in random piles on the floor and a condom was retrieved from the top drawer of her dresser. 

Anna straddled him - her hands running across his hard, flat stomach - as she slowly sank down his length. Hans’s fingers dug into the flesh of her thighs as he hissed out a breath. She took a moment to adjust to the feeling of him inside of her, _damn dry spell_ , before beginning to rock against him. As Anna found a steady rhythm, Hans sat up, leaning back on one arm while wrapping the other around her. He kissed at her shoulder as she used his for leverage, moving her hips faster.

Hans’s fingers tangled in the loose strands of her hair that cascaded down her back. He tightened his hand, pulling slightly.

“This ok?” he panted against her collarbone. 

“Yeah,” Anna moaned in response.

He pulled harder at her hair, causing her head to tip back. 

She closed her eyes, enjoying the sensation of the sting on her scalp and of Hans’s mouth on her now more exposed neck. Anna clutched his body closer to her as she moved against him, feeling the fire growing inside. 

Hans released his hold on her hair to cup her cheek and tilt her face down to his. He kissed her hard on the mouth, teeth grazing her lips. 

Anna felt herself become completely engulfed. Her rhythm faltered and her legs quivered as she came. 

Hans laid back on the bed, taking her with him. He gripped tightly onto her hips and began to fuck up into her. Anna rested her forehead against his until he came as well, curses falling from his mouth. 

After coming down from his orgasm he raised his hands up to her face, brushing back her hair and kissing her. Anna smiled and rolled off of him. They laid there for a moment, shoulder to shoulder in her small bed, catching their breaths. 

“Thank you for that,” Anna said, giving him a light good job pat on his chest. 

Hans huffed. “Damn, don’t thank _me_. You did most of the work.”

Anna laughed, bringing a hand up to cover her face. 

{ ~ }

“You want to hang out for a bit?” Anna asked as she put her bra back on. 

“I don’t really do the whole sleeping over thing,” Hans said as he pulled on his pants. 

“I didn’t ask you to sleep over,” she pointed out. 

Hans sagged his shoulders and gave her a look. Technically true, yes. But it seemed to be the kind of thing she was hinting at, and he had really thought they were on the same page as to what this was.

“Anna, I-,“

“Was just looking for a one-time thing. I know, me too. I’m just _saying_ ,” Anna pulled her dress back on, “you’re not going to go all the way back to that house party at this hour. Are you?”

Hans studied her for a moment before pulling his undershirt on over his head. “No.”

“Ok. So. You can either go back to your room and be all sad and lonely the rest of the night, or,” she opened the bottom drawer of her dresser and pulled out a bottle of wine, “you can come up to the roof with me and help me finish this.”

Hans walked over to her, taking the bottle out of her hand and inspecting the label. “This isn’t very good wine.”

“You were drinking the same shit beer as the rest of us at that party. Don’t act like your alcohol standards are so high.”

“Hmm,” he handed her back the bottle. “It’s a cold night.”

“Then go back to your room,” she said as she went to grab her coat. 

Hans thought for a moment, and then, “What the hell, why not?”

~

When they got to the top of the stairwell Anna opened the door to the roof and then placed a small block of wood in the doorway to keep it propped open. They found a place where they could lean their backs against a short wall and sat with their knees pulled up.

“So, why does my sister hate you?” Anna asked him once they were settled.

“You’ll have to ask her,” Hans opened the bottle of wine, a fucking twist-off cap. 

“Maybe I will,” she snatched the bottle out of his hand in order to take the first swing. “Do you really have twelve siblings? Or was Kristoff right and you were just fucking with us?”

“No, I do. All brothers.”

“Wow,” she said before taking another swing of wine. 

“There are two sets of twins in there, but, _yeah_ ,” he motioned with his hand. “Give that here, you can’t drink from it twice before I even get to drink once.”

Anna passed the bottle back to him. “And which number are you?” 

“Lucky number thirteen,” Hans lifted the bottle up, toasting the air, before drinking from it. 

“Guess after you your parents knew they were done with kids, huh?” Anna teased. 

“I don’t know,” he said, handing the bottle back to her. “I think they were done long before that.”

She scrunched her eyebrows together, not understanding his meaning. 

“So, what part of the city are you from?” he asked, picking up the thread of another conversation from the day before that he had been too hungover to care about at the time. 

“Upper East Side,” she responded, allowing him to change the subject. 

“ _Ooh_ , fancy.”

Anna rolled her eyes and took a swig. “What part of the Island are you from?”

“Muttontown.”

She laughed. “And you call _me_ fancy?” 

Hans shrugged. His family’s money was just that, _theirs_. He didn’t want it. He would make his own one day. 

“I looked up, Malone.”

Hans gave her a look. “What?”

“Malone. Where Kristoff is from.”

“Oh, right,” Hans had completely forgotten.

“You were right, it’s so far north it’s practically in Canada,” she looked down inspecting the label of the wine. “I feel bad kind of.”

“You feel bad that he’s from almost-Canada?” 

“ _No_ ,” she handed the bottle back off to him. “I mean the way you and I reacted. Like, I don’t know, thinking back on it makes me feel like it could have come off like we were making fun of him. The way we just _stared_ at him when he said the town name.” 

“We weren’t making fun of him, we had just never heard of the random bumfuck town that he’s from,” Hans shook his head and took a swing. 

“See? _That_ ,” Anna pointed at him. “That snobbiness right there is what I’m talking about.”

“You’re seriously overthinking this, Anna.”

“Maybe,” she took the bottle back from him. “I still feel a little bad.”

Hans watched her for a moment as she looked up at the stars. Had she actually taken the time to look up this guy’s hometown? Why the fuck did she care? 

“Anna Bell,” he said slowly. “Do you have a crush on Kristoff?”

“What?” Her head snapped in his direction. “No!”

Yep, she definitely did. 

“Wow,” he laughed. “I guess you don’t have a type.”

“Shut up,” she groaned, covering her face. 

“The dude is like twice your size. But, honestly, I _can_ see the appeal of something like that.”

“Oh my god you _have_ to shut up.”

“And did you see his _hands?_ ” he leaned closer to her, holding out his own in front of her face. 

“I swear to god, I will throw you off this roof!” she gave him a light shove, but he could see a hint of a smile. 

“Ok, ok, relax,” he took the bottle from her hands. 

“Can you do me one favor though?” she asked after a bit of silence. 

“Ugh,” he dramatically rolled his head back before turning to her with a smile. “Yes?”

“Don’t tell Kristoff that we slept together.”

Hans raised an eyebrow at her.

“I just think it could make things awkward,” she twisted her hands together. “In our little group.”

Hans wanted to tease her some more, but he could see that she was being serious. So instead he put an arm around her shoulders and looked up at the night sky, “Don’t worry, I don’t talk about people I sleep with. Besides, I don’t really see me and him ever chatting like buddies. Kinda get the feeling the guy hates me.”

“Bit of a pattern for you, huh?” 

“Yeah, well,” Hans took another swig. “Can’t go through life caring about what other people think of you.” 

“You really believe that?”

“Hmm,” was his only response. 

Anna rested her head against his shoulder. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Since when do _you_ ask permission before asking a question?”

“You don’t have to answer,” she began, her voice quiet. “But back at the party…”

Hans tightened his grip on the bottle, predicting where the conversation was going. 

“The person you were dancing with, and kissing,” she trailed off.

“I’m bi,” he said, answering the question she didn’t actually ask. 

“Ok,” Anna said quickly. “that’s what I thought, but didn’t want to assume.” She took the bottle back from him and drank again. 

So it wasn’t something that bothered her, apparently. Not that he would have cared if it did bother her. He didn’t care about other people’s opinions when it came to that. 

Not anymore. 

~

They stayed up on the roof for another hour or so talking before the wine was gone and they were both starting to lose feeling in their fingers and toes from the cold. 

Before stepping back out the same window that he had come in, Hans turned to Anna. 

“Hey,” he said, bending down and kissing her. When he pulled back from the kiss he traced his thumb across her bottom lip. “I’ll see you around?”

Anna looked at him for a beat before her lips slowly turned up into a smile. “How often does that work?”

Hans pulled back his hand slightly in surprise. “Um, most of the time?”

She rolled her eyes before turning and heading back to her room. “Have a goodnight, Hans.”

He watched her walk away for a moment before swinging his legs out the window and climbing back down the pipe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to Liv (ahtohallan_calling) for helping me decide what Hans smells like.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sundays mean Family Dinner Night.

“Anna, can you cut the lettuce?” Elsa asked as she stood at the stove, stirring the sauce. 

It was the first Sunday of the semester which meant it was the first Family Dinner Night of the semester. Elsa and her girlfriend Maren were both seniors and lived together in an off campus apartment. Maren also happened to be Ryder’s big sister. So, every Sunday since the two of them first came to college, they’d come over to Elsa and Maren’s for what had come to be called Family Dinner Night. 

As freshmen who would otherwise be resigned to living off of dining hall food, a home cooked meal once a week felt like a god send. This week’s menu was baked ziti with meat sauce, garlic bread, and caesar salad. But one stipulation to their weekly free meal was that Anna and Ryder were required to help cook. 

Anna got the lettuce from the fridge, took out a cutting board and knife, and joined Ryder at the table where he was already shredding cheese. 

Maren walked into the kitchen then, coming up to Elsa and giving her a kiss on the cheek, “What’s cooking, good looking?”

Anna smiled. The two of them were so cute together. And there was something comforting about watching a happy couple in such a domestic situation. 

Elsa and Maren had met on the very first day of freshman orientation and it was, as they say, love at first sight. Anna had heard both of them tell the story numerous times. But, she preferred Maren’s telling because it included the part where Elsa wasn’t looking where she was walking and fell into the large fountain at the center of campus. 

It was a bit of shame though, she thought. Not that they weren’t absolutely perfect for each other. But just how early they met. Because of it they’ve both spent their entire college lives _attached_ to another person. All of the _experiences_ they must have missed out on because of it. Anna couldn’t imagine. 

Anna never voiced that opinion to them, of course. They were happy. Plus, them being together was the whole reason she even _knew_ Ryder. She wouldn’t trade this little family for anything. 

“Anna, how are you liking Introduction to Decision Making in Management?” Elsa asked, glancing over her shoulder. Elsa was in the same major that Anna had chosen, so she knew all of the classes that Anna was going to need to take for it. 

“It’s great.”

It sucked. 

“I’m glad you’re finally taking a class related to your major,” Elsa continued, “It’s important to do that sooner rather than later. You want to make sure you actually like your major while there is still time to change it.”

Anna bristled, “Who said anything about changing majors?”

“I’m not saying you specifically, Anna. I’m saying,” she gestured vaguely, “in general.”

“Do you know someone named Hans Westergaard?” Anna asked, both looking to change the subject and to find out the full story that Hans had only hinted at. 

Elsa fully turned around to face Anna, “How do _you_ know him?”

Anna ignored the look on Ryder’s face. He had seen her head home with Hans the night before and had already teased her about it earlier that day. 

“I got partnered up with him for an assignment in Western Civ. He said he knew you.” Anna said. That wasn’t _exactly_ what Hans had said, but she thought better of using his exact words had been. 

“Isn’t that the kid you kicked out of the Student Volunteer Organization last year?” Maren asked. 

“ _I_ didn’t kick him out. I just pointed out to our faculty advisor all the things he was doing,” Elsa returned her attention to the sauce, “And _they_ kicked him out. Some people join thinking all it is is wearing matching tee shirts and picking up garbage from a playground for an afternoon and then getting a big round of applause. But there’s more to it than that. There’s a lot of planning and organizing and paperwork.”

Elsa getting frustrated with someone for not taking paperwork seriously made sense. But, Hans joining the Student Volunteer Organization? That didn’t really seem like his kind of thing. 

“So, what kind of things did he do to get kicked out?” Anna asked. 

Elsa sighed, “Lots of things. Intentionally rearranging files in the office. Tricking other people into doing the work that _he_ had committed to doing then still taking credit for it…”

Anna knew Hans could be a bit of a prick when he wanted to be, but these things didn’t sound like him. 

“...Showing up late and hungover.”

Ok, that sounded like him. 

Elsa shook her head, “I feel bad for you if you have to be stuck working one-on-one with him the rest of the semester.” 

Ryder snickered and Anna kicked him under the table. 

“Not one-on-one actually. There are three people in our group.”

“How’s the third person? Someone more pleasant I hope.”

“He is,” Anna said as she moved all the chopped lettuce into a large bowl, “Maren, you might know him. Kristoff. He’s a senior and a computer engineering major, just like you.”

“Bjorgman?” she arched an eyebrow. 

“Yeah, you know him?”

Maren shrugged, “Sort of. I’ve had classes with him each of the last two years, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard him say more than three words at a time.”

Yeah, that sounded like Kristoff. 

The conversation moved on from there to the forecast for more snow next week, what new Netflix documentaries were worth watching, and plans to meet up for Ryder’s lacrosse games once the season started up

Anna had to bite back some sadness at the thought of this being the only year that the four of them would overlap at college. The dinners she had had here around Elsa and Maren’s kitchen table had been some of the happiest family dinners of her life. Come next year, Anna knew she would miss them terribly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A shorter chapter this time. Also, I know this was the second chapter in a row without Kristoff. He’ll be in the next one and, going forward, it will be the very rare chapter where he does not appear. But at this point in the story we just needed to spend a little bit more time with Anna. Chapter 5 is mostly done and should be up soon!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Snow Day!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've posted two chapters today, so please make sure to read Chapter 4 before reading this one.

“We should go sledding on North Hill when we’re done,” Anna said, eagerness in her voice. 

“Sledding?” Kristoff raised his head from what he was working on, but saw that Anna was looking in the opposite direction. He followed her eye line to the windows at the far end of the group study area of the library. The snow was coming down harder now than it had been when he had walked to campus earlier that morning. 

Hans glanced over his shoulder to see what they were looking at and then turned back with a grin, “Yeah, I’ll go.”

“Great! Kristoff you have to come to!” Anna turned to him and reached a hand out across the table in his direction, but it stopped just short of his arm. 

“I, uh, I have class,” he said, which was the truth. He’d needed to head there right after they were done here. 

“Ok, maybe next time.”

Kristoff could hear a twinge of disappointment in Anna’s voice as he watched her hand retract back across the table. Did she actually want him to come? Or was she just asking to be polite?

There was a part of him hoping that it was the former. But that was stupid, she wasn’t into him. No, he thought as they got back to work, she was just being polite. 

Once they had finished their assignment for the week and were packing up their bags, all three of their phones buzzed simultaneously. They each opened the message at the same time. 

Anna squealed and practically bounced with excitement, “They’ve cancelled classes the rest of the day!”

“Nice, a snow day,” Hans said tucking his phone back into his pocket.

“That means you can come with us,” Anna turned to him, smiling, “Now that you don’t have class.”

“That’s true,” Kristoff said, zipping up his bag, “but, uh, I don’t have a sled.” 

Hans and Anna both looked at him as if _he_ were the crazy one.

Anna rolled her eyes and pulled her bag up over her shoulder, “Don’t worry, I got it.”

Kristoff wasn’t sure what she meant, but he followed them out of the library. 

~

“The dining hall?” Kristoff said, looking up at the building.

Hans and Anna were giving him that strange look again.

“Are you messing with us or do you really not know?” Anna asked.

“I, uh,” _fuck_ , he felt like and idiot, “I really don‘t know.”

“Lunch trays,” Anna said pointing at the dining hall, “you steal the lunch trays and use them as sleds.”

“Oh,” Kristoff said dumbly. He guessed that made sense. 

“Literally every freshman has gone sledding on lunch trays,” Hans said, “I get that you’ve probably been a grumpy old man your whole life, but you had to be a freshman at some point.”

Kristoff scowled, “I was. Just not here.”

“But, when you were a freshman in the dorms at your old school, they didn’t do stuff like this?” Anna asked, frowning slightly. 

Kristoff readjusted the strap of his bag over his shoulder, “I did community college my first two years. No dorms.”

Anna gave him a warm smile, “It’s ok. You’ll get to do it now.” 

Kristoff nodded.

“Ok, wait right here, I’ll go get them.”

“Don’t get caught,” Hans called after her.

“I won’t, I’m sneaky,” Anna did a little shimmy before disappearing into the building.

And with that Kristoff was stuck alone with Hans. 

Kristoff had done his best to keep things civil with Hans ever since that first group session of theirs. It seemed to upset Anna when the two of them bickered, so he obviously looked to avoid that. But that didn’t mean he wanted to have an actual conversation with the guy if he didn’t need to. Luckly, Hans seemed to feel the same as he had begun to idly scroll through his phone. 

Kristoff drummed his fingers against his leg. He hated long empty moments like this. Felt like wasted time. He wondered if it would be rude of him to pop his headphones in while they waited. 

Luckily Anna emerged then with the trays.

“Ugh,” Hans said looking at the tray that Anna handed to him, “They’re dirty.”

“Well, yeah,” Anna said as if it were obvious, “it’s easier to steal the dirty ones, because the dirty ones are by the back door where people leave instead of the clean ones which are by the front door.”

Hans scrunched up his nose as he held the tray out away from his body. 

“I got napkins,” Anna sighed with an exaggerated eye roll. She handed Kristoff his tray before digging the napkins out of her pockets so they could clean them. 

Kristoff stared down at the lunch tray in his hands, “It’s too small.”

“No, it’s fine, here look,” Anna placed her now mostly clean tray on the ground, sitting down on it cross legged and holding her arms out triumphantly, “Ta-da!” 

“Ok, but, you’re a tiny person,” he grumbled, “And I’m-”

“An ogre?” Hans offered.

Kristoff glared at him.

“It’s _fine_ ,” Anna said standing up, “You’re a big guy but you’re not, like, ‘world record biggest guy to ever sled down a hill on a lunch tray’ big. Let’s go!” 

And then she was off, Kristoff and Hans following behind. 

~

When they got to North Hill, there were already a number of students there sledding. The three of them dropped their bags off at the bottom of the hill and began to climb. It was a steeper climb than Kristoff had thought it would be, but when they got to the top of the hill it seemed worth it. Even with the snow still coming down, they had a wide view of almost all of campus. He enjoyed it for a moment before remembering why they were there. 

“So, um,” he gripped the tray tightly in his hands, “how do I do this?”

“You’ve never been sledding _ever_?” Hans asked. 

“I _have_ been sledding,” Kristoff responded, “Just, when I was a kid and that was on, you know, actual sleds.” 

“Just put the tray down and sit on it,” Anna told him.

Kristoff followed her instructions. 

“What do I do with my legs?” he asked, knowing he wasn’t going to be able to scrunch them up on the way that Anna had been able to. 

“Just hold them out straight in front of you,” Anna said.

“Use your core,” Hans added.

Kristoff felt his forehead crease. Hans could have begun to sled down the hill already if he really wanted to, but he seemed more interested in watching Kristoff’s humiliation.

“Yes,” Anna continued on, “and hold onto the edges of the tray. The trick is hold on tight enough to not fall off but also to not to get your fingers under the tray or else they’ll scrape against the ground as you go.”

Kristoff began to adjust his hands but struggled to get a good grip, “That seems impossible. The edges are too small, or maybe my hands are too big?”

Hans snickered and Anna shot him a glare.

“It’s fine, I got it,” Kristoff said, just wanting this to be over. 

“We can give you a push,” Anna said, as if it were a good idea.

“I’m not very comfortable with the idea of that.”

“No she’s right, it’ll make it easier so you don’t have to scooch up to the edge,” Hans said. 

Kristoff felt himself tense slightly as the two of them placed their hands on his shoulders and upper arms. They pushed him along for a few paces before releasing as he went over the crest of the hill. He felt a bit of panic at first, but it faded as he easily slid down the hill. A smile began to spread across his face has he glided across the snow, the wind wooshing past him. 

His tray slowly petered out as he came to stop at the bottom of the hill. Anna and Hans weren’t far behind him. 

“Kristoff!” she hopped up, grinning wildly, “You did it! Wasn’t it so much fun?”

“Uh, yeah actually,” he admitted. 

“Let’s go again,” Anna began to sprint up the hill, tray in hand.

“Race ya,” Hans said with a wink before taking off.

Kristoff grumbled slightly before following. By the time he got to the top of the hill Anna and Hans had already started to sled back down. Kristoff paused for a moment to catch his breath. He needed to work out more.

Kristoff sat down on the tray, realizing he’d have to do this on his own this time. He did a sort of crab walk to get closer to the crest. With a few more little hopping motions he began to move down the hill, but had accidentally got himself turned sideway. 

Not quite as comfortable as going down feet first, he thought, but it was ok. 

And then Kristoff saw it, a baseball sized rock in the middle of the hill. He was heading right for it and, well, lunch trays don’t have steering wheels. He closed his eyes and braced himself as he hit it and felt himself go airborne.

{ ~ }

“Come on, let’s go again,” Hans said when they got to the bottom of the hill.

“One sec, I want to take a picture of Kristoff coming down,” Anna tucked her tray under her arm and pulled out her phone. 

“Why?”

“Because this is his first time sledding on trays and it’s special and shut up, that’s why,” Anna responded, ignoring Hans’s knowing glare. 

Anna saw that Kristoff had already started to come back down the hill so she opened the camera on her phone. But then, just as she was snapping the picture, Kristoff went flying off his sled and rolling down the hill.

“Kristoff!” Anna gasped and rushed towards him, Hans following behind. 

He rolled to stop at the bottom on the hill, spralling out on his back.

Anna knelt down next to him and placed a hand on his arm, “Kristoff! Are you ok?”

Kristoff had a stunned expression on his face. Snow covered his clothes and clung to his hair. 

Hans crouched down on the other side of him from Anna, “Hey, man. You ok?”

Kristoff looked back and forth between the two of them and then closed his eyes and began to laugh. A loud and deep laugh, his whole body shaking and his hands clasped over his stomach. Anna retracted back her hand, surprised. 

Hans rolled his eyes and stood back up, “He’s fine.”

But Anna stayed kneeling next to him, watching his face. There were tears in the corners of his eyes, his whole face was scrunched up in laughter, and his cheeks were turning even redder than what the cold had caused. It was all so completely different from anything she had seen from him before. 

“That hurt so bad,” he said when he finally caught his breath, but there was still laughter in his voice.

Anna smiled then, “Are you ok though? You didn’t hit your head did you?”

“Yeah,” Kristoff’s laughter petered out, but his own smile remained as he looked up at her, “I’m fine. I have a thick skull.”

“Well, come on, let’s get you up,” Anna stood and held a hand out for him. Hans held out a hand as well, likely knowing that Kristoff was too big for Anna to be able to help up all on her own. 

“So you’re good?” Hans asked, amused, “No broken hip or anything?” 

“I’m fine,” he bent over to scoop up his hat which had landed a few paces away from where he did, “ready to go again.”

The three of them began to head back up the hill when Anna had a realization. 

“Wait!” she stopped and pulled her phone back out, “The picture!”

Kristoff turned, “What picture?”

“Holy shit,” Hans’s eye went wide, “please tell me you got it.”

Anna opened the camera roll of her phone and then had to clasp a hand over her mouth to contain her laughter. She had managed to capture the exact moment he went airborne, including the look of sheer panic on his face. 

Seeing her reaction, both Hans and Kristoff rushed over, coming to stand close on either side of her. Hans began cracking up. 

“Oh my god,” Kristoff said slowly as he reached out and tilted the phone in his direction, his gloved hand covering hers, “You have to send that to me.”

“Me too!” 

“Fuck off,” Kristoff reached behind Anna’s back to give Hans a light shove, but there wasn’t any malice in his voice. 

“I’ll send it to you both in the group text,” she quickly did so before putting her phone back in her pocket, “come on, let’s go.”

~

After they were good and tired from several trips down North Hill, the three of them gathered up their bags and began to walk back. The snow had nearly stopped, but there were still some flakes gently falling. 

As they made their way, Anna noticed that Hans was beginning to hang back. She looked over her shoulder and gave him a questioning look.

Hans pointed at Kristoff and then at her. He then made an obscene gesture, holding a slightly open fist up to his mouth and sticking his tongue into his cheek. 

Anna felt herself blush, quickly checking to make sure Kristoff was still looking forward. 

“Well, I’m this way,” Hans said loudly, pointing at a divergent path. 

Anna and Kristoff both stopped and turned around. She narrowed her eyes at him, knowing that wasn’t the way to Isle Hall.

“Alright, well, enjoy the rest of the snow day,” Kristoff gave him a small wave and then turned to keep walking. 

Anna shook her head at him, but Hans just gave her two thumbs up and a big smile before walking off. 

“So, um,” Anna said to Kristoff once they were alone, “any plans for the rest of the day?”

“Probably just school work,” he responded, continuing to look forward. 

Anna nodded her head. It felt like a brush off, especially when he didn’t ask what her plans were in return. 

They walked in silence as they made their way across campus, the salt that had been spread out on the paths crunching beneath their feet. 

Anna didn’t know where Kristoff lived. She figured off campus, since he was a senior, but in which direction she didn’t know. So, she wasn’t sure at what point he’d peel off and start heading a different way than her. But as she walked he stayed beside her, taking every turn or fork in the path that she did. 

Maybe where he lived just happened to be in the same direction as her dorm? Or maybe he _was_ interested in spending some more time with her today? But if so, her dorm would not be the ideal spot. With classes canceled, Rebecca would definitely be back in the room. His place would be better, clearly. But she couldn’t just invite herself over. 

“You and your roommates have any fun snow day traditions?” Anna asked, desperately hoping it wasn’t too obvious of a question. 

“What?” Kristoff said, “Oh, no. No roommates.”

Then they were back to silence. 

It was so much easier, Anna thought, at some house party or over at The Trading Post. An exchange of knowing looks and flirty smiles. Words whispered in ears and then slipping out the door hand in hand. But here, in the light of day and with the bare white of the snow around them, she felt so much more exposed. 

Anna glanced up at him. Kristoff had his hands in his pockets and his face was tight as if he were deep in thought. She thought about how his face looked earlier, after his wipe out when he was laughing. 

_Fuck it_ , she thought. She’d allow herself one last Hail Mary and then be done with it. 

“So, computer engineering. Probably a lot of hard math with that major, right?”

“Uh, yeah,” Kristoff looked over at her quickly before returning to look straight ahead, “It can be. But math was always my best subject.”

“I have my gen ed math class this semester,” she said, “It’s been really hard, but I’m sure it’s nothing compared to what you’re used to.”

He nodded, but said nothing further. 

It stung, and Anna scolded herself internally. Acting dumb to get a guy’s attention? It felt pathetic. Even more so since it didn’t even work. 

“Well, this is me,” Anna said when they eventually reached Castle Hall. 

“Oh,” Kristoff stopped and looked up at the building and then down at her, “ok.”

Anna tightened her hand around the strap of her bag, “Well, goodbye then.”

“I could help you,” he blurted out. 

“What?” 

“Your math class. That you’re having trouble with,” he hunched his shoulders, his hands still in his pockets, “If you want. I can look at it, or I mean _we_ can and maybe I can help you.”

Hope ignited in her chest, “Really?”

“Yeah, um, maybe we can find some time next week to get together?”

“That would be great,” she smiled, “if it’s not too much trouble.”

He smiled back at her, “No, no trouble at all.”

They stood there for a moment, smiling at each other.

“Well, great. Thank you. And, um, enjoy the rest of your snow day,” Anna gave him a small wave. 

“You too,” he returned her wave and turned to go. 

Anna looked back over her shoulder when she got to the door of her building. Kristoff had his headphones in and was walking off in the direction that they had just come from. She bit her lip realizing that he had gone out of his way to walk her home.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kristoff helps Anna with her math.

Anna nodded along as Kristoff went on about factoring and equations, binomials this and _x_ squared that. They were sitting on the couch in his apartment and she had her textbook balanced on her lap while he had a notepad out, showing her the steps of how to solve the problem. 

She had insisted that since _he_ was the one helping _her_ , that _she_ should be the one to come to _him_. Anna had also picked a time in the evening for them to meet, therefore neither of them would have a class afterwards that they would need to leave to go to. 

There wasn’t really much to his apartment. A small kitchen when you first walk in which was open to the living room beyond that. Along one wall were doors that she assumed led to a bathroom and a bedroom. He didn’t have a table, just a stool tucked under an overhang of his kitchen counter. So, the couch it was. 

“Does that make sense, the way I explained it?” Kristoff asked her. 

“Yes,” she said, “this one was easier than the last one.”

“Yes, well, _some_ equations are harder than others,” he said, looking at her expectantly. 

Anna looked back at him, confused as to why he had put emphasis on that particular word. 

“Never mind,” Kristoff shook his head and looked back down at what they were working on. 

But it was then that it clicked in her brain, “Oh! _Sum_. Like s-u-m. Because math.”

“Yeah,” Kristoff nodded, blushing slightly. 

“It was a funny joke.”

“No, it wasn’t.”

“No, you’re right, it wasn’t.”

That made him laugh and Anna smiled at the sight of it. She had been looking for a break in the conversation, to get them away from the math, and now that it was here she was going to make sure to jump through it. 

“I have a question for you,” she said, leaning towards him.

He motioned to her textbook, “Well, that's what I'm here for.” 

“No, not math-related. You-related.”

Kristoff put his pencil down, somewhat hesitant, “Ok.”

“Why are you twenty-three?”

His eyes narrowed, “ _Why_ am I…?”

“No,” Anna let out a small laugh and she could see that Kristoff was trying to contain one of his own, “that came out wrong, that’s not what I meant.”

“Ok, because I was going to say, how much help _do_ you need with math?”

“No, shut up. I mean, you said you didn’t do a gap year but you’re also older than normal for a senior. So, I was wondering what the deal was with that.” 

“Oh, um,” he reached forward to put his notepad and pencil down on the coffee table, “I did community college right after high school. And then when I finished my two year degree there, well,” he scratched at the back of his neck, “money was a bit tight and I needed to work for a bit to save up. So there was a bit of a gap before I was able to transfer in here as a junior.”

“Right, that makes sense,” Anna didn’t really know what to say in situations like this. She never had to worry about paying for college. Or anything else for that matter. And now, as Kristoff sat there looking somewhat uncomfortable, she was wishing she had picked a different topic of conversation.

“Back to the math?” he asked. 

“You know, I think I’m good,” Anna closed her textbook, “I understand it now. You’re really good at explaining things.”

He looked proud of himself, “I’m glad I could help.”

“So,” she said with a smile as she looked up at him, “what do you want to do now?”

“Um,” Kristoff rubbed his hands across the tops of his knees as he thought for a moment, “I’m kinda hungry. You want to get some food?”

“Food sounds good,” she said. It wasn’t what she would have suggested, but she hadn’t had dinner so she was feeling hungry too. 

“Pizza? I can order from Fredo’s?”

“Yes! I _love_ their pizza.”

“You do?” Kristoff pulled out his phone to order, “I always thought it was average. I only order from there because it’s close and I get a discount.” 

“What? No, it’s great. It’s always mine and my friends’ go to late night food,” she paused and tilted her head slightly, “Wait, why do you get a discount?”

“I work there. I do deliveries on Saturday nights.”

“Really?” she leaned back on the couch as she looked at him, “Maybe you’ve been my delivery guy before.”

“No, I don’t think so,” he said looking down at his phone as he pulled up their number, “I would have remembered you.”

Anna pursed her lips together, trying not to smile. 

{ ~ }

Anna packed away her books as they waited for the pizza. Kristoff noticed that Anna’s school bag was, well, a bit of a mess on the inside. Lots of loose papers and random things shoved in. She was trying to squeeze her math textbook back in but it wasn’t quite fitting. She ended up needing to take a bunch of things out, scattering them across his coffee table, as she rearranged and reloaded. 

Kristoff watched it all with a quiet amusement. But then one of her books caught his eye. It wasn’t a notebook or a textbook, but something leatherbound. 

“What’s that?” he asked, pointing at it. 

“What’s what?” Anna looked to see what he was pointing at, and when she saw what it was she quickly snatched it up off the coffee table, “Oh, it’s nothing, it’s just my sketchbook.”

“Sketchbook? Like, drawings?” 

“Yeah,” she says with a small shrug, “it’s just like, buildings and people and other random things. It’s nothing.” 

“Can I see?” he asked, curious. Anna had never mentioned anything about drawing before.

“Oh, I,” Anna pulled the book closer to her body. 

Kristoff lifted his hands and leaned back a bit, realizing that he may have overstepped, “You don’t have to. Obviously.”

She put the book down in her lap and ran her hands across the cover, thinking for a moment, “Ok, I’ll show you _one_.”

“You sure?”

“Yes, but just the one,” Anna shifted her body so that she was facing him and held the book up in a way that would prevent him from sneaking any unauthorized peeks. As she opened the book he was able to see that there was a large envelope tucked between the front cover and the first page, though he couldn’t tell what was in it. 

“Here, this one,” she moved closer and turned the book around so he could see, “I did this one today.”

There on the page was a pencil drawing of the student union building. It had been renovated a few years back and had a unique architecture to it. Arendelle U was so proud of it they’d been putting a picture of it on all their promotional materials since. 

“Wow, that’s amazing,” he said as he looked at it. And it was. She had gotten all the lines and angles perfect, and it was incredibly detailed, “You did this whole thing _today_?”

Anna beamed at him, “Yeah, I just got some new Faber-Castell pencils and I was feeling inspired.”

“Faber-Castell?”

“Oh, they’re the _best_ pencils and I love it when I get a new thing of them. It gets me so excited. Opening them up and looking at them and they’re all… new,” she shook her head and put her sketchbook back in her bag, “Sorry, I know that’s silly, getting excited about pencils.”

“No, I get it.”

“You do?” she scrunched up her nose, looking back at him. 

“Yeah, well, not for drawing but,” he held up the pencil that he had just been using, “I always use pencils for math, or when I’m brainstorming code, and Ticonderogas are the only ones I’ll ever use. Nothing else compares.”

Anna smiled. 

“And as for the whole them being new thing,” Kristoff continued, trying to keep that smile going, “I get that too. When you open a new box, and they’re pre-sharpened, and they’re just,” he moved his hand flat across the air out in front of him, “they’re clean and even and perfect. There is something oddly satisfying about it.”

“Yes!” her eyes lit up and she grabbed a hold of his arm, “Exactly! Finally, someone else who _gets_ it.”

Her face was so close to his now. He could see every freckle across her nose and cheeks. Could see the exact ways that the green and blue specks mingled to form the unique shade of her eyes. Looking down at her, Kristoff thought about how easy it would be to reach up and tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. To pull her close and kiss her. 

He was jolted from his thoughts by a loud knock on the door. Anna also jumped, moving back a few inches from him on the couch. 

“The pizza,” he said dumbly as he stood. 

“Right,” Anna nodded, “do you need-,” she went to reach into her bag,

“No, no,” he waived her off, “I got it.”

Kristoff answered the door and paid for the pizza. They got themselves set up on the couch with plates, napkins, and some sodas he had in the fridge. 

They talked more as they ate. Well, mostly it was Anna that was talking and Kristoff listening. But he didn’t mind that, he liked listening to her talk. 

Kristoff was silently chiding himself, though. Had he really almost just kissed her like that? Anna trusted him enough to come all the way to his apartment all by herself, and she came here looking for _help_ , and he was what? Going to put a move on her? 

And maybe she did want him to kiss her. But if he had gone for it then, how would he have known for sure?

“You were right,” Anna said, as she finished her second slice.

“Right about what?” he asked, shaking himself from his thoughts. 

“The pizza. It is average. I think it’s just that anything will taste amazing at 2am when you’re drunk.” 

“Yeah,” he tossed down the crust from his third slice, “that’s pretty much their entire business model.”

They both laughed softly at that. 

“Well, I know we both have class in the morning,” Kristoff said after a bit of silence. He didn’t necessarily want her to leave, but he didn’t want her to feel obligated to stay. 

“Yes, right,” Anna said, moving to stand, “I should get out of your hair.”

“I can walk you back,” he offered, “If you want. I know it’s not that far and it’s not even that late but-,”

“Yes,” she cut him off, “that would be nice. Thank you.”

~

Kristoff kept his hands tucked deep in his pockets. They walked mostly in silence before coming to a stop outside of her dorm. 

“Well, this is me,” Anna said, motioning towards the building with her head.

“Right,” Kristoff nodded. 

But she didn’t make any movement to head inside. Instead just standing there looking at him. The lights from inside the lobby of the dorm were shining through the glass doors and casting a glow across her face. He took his hands out of his pockets, but wasn’t quite sure what to do with them. 

“Thank you, again,” Anna said as she took a step closer to him. She seemed to hesitate for a moment, before putting a hand on his arm and lifting herself up onto her toes to place a kiss on his cheek. 

His eyes widened and his breath caught, not having been expecting that. 

Her hand went to fall away from him as she sank back onto her heels, but Kristoff reached out and caught it in his. He held it gently enough so that she could pull away if she wanted to, but she didn’t. That had to mean something, right? 

“Anna,” he said in a whisper, hoping that she knew it was a question. 

She nodded and squeezed his hand tighter. 

Kristoff brought his other hand up to her face, letting his thumb brush across her cheek, before leaning in and kissing her. He felt her smile against his mouth before she deepened the kiss. She tasted like cheap pizza, and he knew he did too, but it was the best first kiss he ever had. Anna melted into him, and he felt a warmth spread through his chest.

When she finally broke the kiss he pressed his forehead against hers, wanting to linger in the moment for just a little bit longer. 

“Good night,” Anna said, her breath against his face. 

He gave her hand one last squeeze before letting go, “Good night.” 

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said as she began moving towards the door but still facing him. 

“Yeah?” his heart leapt. She wanted to see him again tomorrow. 

“Yeah. In the library.”

Right. Duh. The three of them were meeting tomorrow to work on their assignment. 

“Yes, tomorrow,” he nodded.

Anna gave him one last smile before turning away. 

Kristoff watched through the glass door as she walked through the lobby and disappeared up the stairs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to Gabi for telling me what a good brand for drawing pencils are.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Plans are made for Friday night.

Hans doubled back, checking all the tables on the first floor of the library again. Still no empty ones. He came back around near the stairs just as Anna and Kristoff were coming down them. 

“No open tables on the second floor,” Anna said. 

“And none on the third,” Kristoff added

“Why the fuck is the library so crowed on a Friday?”

They stood there for a minute, all thinking. 

“Maybe we go back to one of our places?” Anna shrugged, “Work on the assignment there?”

Hans shook his head, “My place is no good. My suitemates are having some video game tournaments today. It’s,” he waved his hand vaguely, “very important, apparently.”

“We could go to my dorm,” she offered. 

“Not exactly a lot of room for three people to work in a dorm.”

They both looked over at Kristoff.

He sighed, “Fine, follow me.”

~

Hans knew he always wanted to live alone one day, but he prayed that when he did it wouldn’t be in a place quite as depressing as Kristoff’s apartment. The kitchen and living room were basically one little room and the only furniture he could see was a single kitchen stool, a small couch, a rickety coffee table, and an old TV. 

“The couch might be a tight fit for all of us,” Kristoff said awkwardly as the three of them stood there looking at it. 

“I can sit over here on the floor. I’ll use the coffee table as a table,” Anna said as she walked around to the opposite side of it. 

“No, no, you’re a guest, you shouldn’t have to sit on the floor,” Kristoff said, “I can.” 

“Really, it’s fine,” she assured him. 

Hans sat down on one end of the couch. These two could have a polite-off if they wanted, but he wasn’t going to be the one sitting on Kristoff’s dirty floor. 

“I’m already closer to the ground, so I’ll be the most comfortable sitting like this,” Anna sat down and placed her book in front of her on the coffee table, “See? Perfect.”

“Well, if you’re sure,” Kristoff walked to the far end of the couch and sat. 

Hans adjusted himself to sit crossed-legged. Even though it was kind of a crappy couch, it was much better than the chairs in the library that forced you to have to sit normal. 

“Shoes,” Kristoff grumbled. 

Hans rolled his eyes as he pulled his shoes off and let them fall to the floor with a _thud_ , “Better?”

Kristoff didn’t respond. 

“So. It’s Friday,” Anna tapped her fingers against her book, “Everybody got big plans for tonight?”

“Going to delta house, obviously,” Hans said, “It’s their first party of the semester.”

Anna froze, “Wait, that’s _tonight_?”

“Yeah.” How did she not know? Everybody knew. 

“A party at a frat house?” Kristoff scrunched up his face, “Aren’t frat guys kind of a bunch of douchebags?”

Kristoff quickly glanced in his direction as he said the last word, as if he subconsciously associated the word ‘douchebag‘ with Hans. The two of them had more or less maintained a truce since that first group session, but it was clear that Kristoff didn’t think very highly of him. Hans really didn’t give a fuck and would gladly tell him so. But he kept his mouth shut. Anna liked the guy for some reason, so Hans was willing to keep the peace for her sake. 

“Yeah, frat guys suck, but that doesn’t matter,” Anna waved her hand, “Delta has this _huge_ house and they only put on parties a few times each semester but when they do it’s this massive thing. They get a ton of kegs and _everybody_ goes.”

Kristoff drummed his fingers on his knee, “Are you going?”

“Yeah, we should go together,” Anna said before quickly adding, “We should _all_ go, I mean. We should all go together.”

Hans glared over at her. What the fuck did she mean by _we_?

“I don’t know where it is,” Kristoff said. 

“It’s not far from here, just a couple blocks in the opposite direction as campus. Hans and I can come back here later and pick you up and we can all go together.”

When Kristoff looked down to pull his books out of his bag Hans held his hands out to Anna in a questioning way. 

‘Say yes,’ she silently mouthed at him.

‘Why?’ Hans mouthed back. Why the fuck was he being pulled into this?

She gave him a death stare which quickly turned back into a smile as Kristoff looked up. 

“Yeah, that sounds great,” Hans faked. 

“Um, ok,” Kristoff said, seeming almost less enthusiastic about the idea than he was. 

“Great!” Anna beamed, “We’ll all meet back here around 10:30.”

“ _10:30?_ ” 

“Why, is that your bedtime?” Hans was teasing, but the look on Kristoff’s face implied that, yeah, that might actually be the guy’s bedtime. 

“It’s just, I’m up all night on Saturdays delivering for Fredo’s, but,” he looked back over at Anna and smiled, “it’s fine, 10:30 sounds great.”

“Fredo’s?” That got Hans’s attention, “I _love_ their pizza, it’s the best.”

Anna and Kristoff both began to laugh at that. 

Hans looked back and forth between the two of them, “What? It is.”

Anna tried to pull back her laughter, “Sorry. It’s, it’s nothing.” 

Hans gave her a suspicious look as they all finally got started on their assignment for the week. 

{ ~ }

“So, why exactly are we coming back here later to take him to the party?” Hans asked her as the two of them began walking back to campus from Kristoff’s apartment. 

“Because,” Anna explained, “he’s never been to one before. And it can be intimidating to show up at a big thing all by yourself. And I feel like if we don’t come here to get him then he might chicken out and not actually show up at all.”

“Let me clarify. Why am _I_ coming back here later?”

“Because. You’re my buffer.”

“Why do you need a buffer? Clearly you two have already been spending some time together. You have an inside joke about pizza.”

Anna smiled, “He helped me with my math work last night.”

“Is that a euphemism, or…”

“No,” she gave him a light smack on the arm, “he literally helped me with my math and then walked me home. And we kissed, but that was it.”

“Wait,” Hans looked over at her, “aren’t you just in a gen ed math class? That’s easy as shit. Why would you need help with that?”

Anna cringed and twisted her hands together. 

His head fell to the side as he looked at her, disappointed, “Oh, Anna. No.”

“I know. _I know_ ,” she covered her face with her hands for a moment before dropping her arms to her sides, “Believe me, I know. I guess I got a bit desperate.”

Hans shook his head and looked forward again. 

“He’s a hard nut to crack,” Anna continued on, feeling the need to explain herself, “And, he seems a bit...shyer? When it comes to this stuff. So, I’m trying not to come on too strong. Which is why you’re coming tonight. So instead of it being me asking him ‘hey, want to go to this party _with_ me’ it’s just ‘hey, let’s all go together, as a group, no big deal’. Less pressure. And then, at some point during the night you just,” she made a shooing motion with her hand, “wander off.”

“Wander off?”

“I’m sure you can find some company easy enough.”

Hans laughed at that, “And you just decided that I would definitely go along with this plan of yours?”

“Of course,” Anna flashed him a smile, “because we’re friends.”

“Hmm,” he hummed. 

After another block Hans spoke again, “Can I say something then? As your friend?”

“I guess I have to say ‘yes’ now, don’t I?”

“If you have to dumb yourself down or tone down your personality in order for him to notice you, then he’s not worth your time.”

Anna looked over at him, surprised. But Hans kept his eyes straight ahead as they walked. 

“I think that’s the nicest thing I have ever heard you say.”

Hans scoffed, “I’m just saying, in general, it’s fucking stupid to ever pretend to be something that you’re not. Especially for other people. It’s bullshit.”

“I understand what you’re saying. And I appreciate it. But, it’s not like that.”

It wasn’t, she told herself. Anna wasn’t pretending to be something that she wasn’t. At least, not really. She was just... fudging things a bit in the beginning to get her foot in the door. Wasn’t that something that guys did all the time when they were trying to get into girls’ pants? Anna thought about some of the fucking _lines_ she had heard from guys in the past, present company included. So, why was it so bad for _her_ to do a bit of the same? 

“Ok,” Hans said, sounding only somewhat convinced. 

“Ok like, yes you’ll do it?”

“Yes, I’ll do it,” he looked back over to her with a small smile, “What are friends for, right?” 

{ ~ }

Kristoff began to make a mental checklist of everything he would need to do before they came back later that night. He should shower and shave. Have something to eat. And, fuck, probably have some coffee too if they weren’t even going _out_ until 10:30pm. 

He walked into his bedroom and looked around. Should probably tidy up a bit too. Just in case. 

As he was making his bed, a thought froze him in place. He did have some, right? Yes, he for sure had some somewhere. But he should check. Just so he would know where they were in the moment. Just in case. 

Kristoff opened and searched through the top drawer of his nightstand. Nothing. Bottom drawer -- nothing.

Where else would he have put them? 

He looked under the bed, through his desk drawers, in his dresser. Kristoff found them finally, buried deep in the back of his sock drawer, an open box of condoms and a half empty bottle of lube. He turned the box over in his hands to check the date. 

Expired. 

Kristoff let out a breath and allowed just how fucking depressing that was sink in. 

He should go buy a new box, right? Or would that be presumptive? They had only just kissed for the first time yesterday.

But Anna _had_ kissed him. And she wanted to go to a party with him tonight. Well, Hans was coming with them too. But if the party was as big as they said it would be, then that wouldn’t really matter once they got there. 

Besides, he was a single guy in college. Buying a box of condoms didn’t mean that he was being presumptive about any one person for any one night. It was... responsible. 

He drummed his fingers on the top on his dresser as he thought. Should probably restock the fridge too. He was low on eggs. 

Kristoff grabbed his keys and wallet and headed out.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Party at delta house!

Kristoff sat in the center of his couch reviewing some notes for one of his classes. He checked the time on his phone. 10:35. They said they were going to be here at 10:30. But that was probably just an estimate. 

The sound of a knock at the door caused him to jump. He quickly closed up his book and stacked up his papers, putting them all in a neat pile on his coffee table. 

When he opened the door Anna came bounding through with Hans casually strolling in behind her. 

“Hey Kristoff! You excited for the party?” she asked him. 

“Yeah, definitely.”

He wasn’t really excited about the party, specifically. It was more the spending time with her that he was looking forward to. 

Anna looked nice tonight. Well, she always looked nice, but she looked extra nice tonight. She was wearing a dress that came to mid thigh, black tights, and a pair of ankle boots - black, with a high heel and little silver buckles on the side. 

Hans opened up the fridge and took out a bottle of water. 

“Help yourself,” Kristoff mumbled. 

If Hans heard him, he didn’t respond. Just leaned back against the counter and began to drink. Anna, meanwhile, perched herself up on the kitchen stool, tapping away at her phone. Kristoff had assumed that they would head right over to the party, but the two of them seemed in no rush to leave. It was like they were waiting for something. 

“So… when do we go to the party?”

“We can head out whenever you’re ready,” Hans said.

“I’m ready,” he confirmed. 

Hans tilted his head to the side and dropped his eyes to what Kristoff was wearing, “Yeah?”

Kristoff scowled and looked over to Anna for support. But she was also looking down at what he was wearing, her mouth scrunched over to one side. 

“What’s wrong with this?” he asked, holding his arms out. 

“It’s a hoodie,” Hans said. 

“You have to have something nicer,” Anna said, hopping down off the stool and heading for his open bedroom door. 

“I mean. Not really, no,” he said, walking in behind her. 

“It doesn’t have to be _nice_ nice, it just has to be not-a-hoodie,” she said over her shoulder as she began to dig through his closet. 

Of all the ways that he had imagined Anna being in his bedroom tonight, this definity didn’t make the list. 

“What’s all this?”

He turned to see that Hans had followed them into the room. He was standing next to Kristoff’s desk looking down at all his equipment. 

“Don’t touch any of that,” Kristoff said firmly. 

Hans lifted his hands defensively, “I didn’t.”

“They’re computer parts. A project for a class of mine.”

He smirked, “So you’re like a proper nerd then, huh?” 

Kristoff wanted to respond to that, but he heard Anna’s voice from behind him. 

“Which one?” 

He turned back around to see her holding up two of his shirts, both flannel, one brown and one a dark blue. But instead of looking at him she was looking at - and directing her question to - Hans. 

Hans walked closer to her, looking at both shirts and then back to Kristoff, “the brown one.”

Anna took the brown shirt off it’s hanger and tossed it over to Kristoff, “Here, put this on.”

For a beat she just stood there looking at him expectantly. 

“Um,” Kristoff turned the shirt over in his hands. 

“Oh, right, we’ll just,” Anna blushed slightly and pointed to the door, “We’ll wait out there for you.”

~

As they walked up to delta house, Kristoff understood why Anna had gone on about the size of the place. It was a huge three story house with a wrap around porch and second floor balcony. Through the windows he could see that it was already full of people and more were continuing to arrive. 

The sounds of the party surrounded him as they walked through the front door. 

Hans led the way through the crowd, then Anna, then Kristoff following closely behind. They passed by a room with music blaring and people dancing. Other rooms with drinking games going on and groups standing around or sitting on couches. There was a large winding staircase that people were going up and down as well as just hanging out on. 

They finally made their way back into a large kitchen with a row of kegs lined up. 

Kristoff heard a cheer go up. He turned in the direction of the sound to see a guy upside down over a keg. Two other people were holding up his legs and a third was holding the keg tap up to his mouth. 

“Anyone want to go?” Hans asked, looking back at them. 

“I’m wearing a dress,” Anna said, motioning to her outfit, “Besides, I don’t plan on drinking that much tonight,”

Kristoff just shook his head. There was no way in hell he was doing a keg stand. 

“Well, _I’m_ going to go.”

“I’m going to get us beers from one of the other kegs, you stay and help,” Anna gave him a smile and quick pat on the chest. 

“Oh, I can-,” but before he could say anything else Anna was off, disappearing through the crowd.

“Come on,” Hans motioned with his head and began to walk over to what was, apparently, the designated keg stand keg. He greeted a pair of guys that were next to it as if he knew them, but he didn’t introduce Kristoff. 

“You know how to work a tap?” Hans asked him. 

“Yes,” he said defensively. Just because he wasn’t a regular at frat parties didn’t mean he didn’t know how a fucking keg tap worked. 

Kristoff picked up the hose, holding it at the end and putting his thumb over the valve of the tap. 

Hans bent over and grabbed onto the handles of the keg as the other two guys took hold of his legs and lifted them in the air. Once he was up, he bent his elbows and began to do some midair push ups. 

Kristoff rolled his eyes, “Stop fucking showing off and just go.”

He laughed and then titled his head to look up. Kristoff looked down at him in return. 

“Ready when you are,” Han said after a beat. 

“Right, sorry,” Kristoff held the tap out in position. 

“Give me ten Mississippis,” he said before putting his mouth on the spout. 

Kristoff pressed down with his thumb and began to count - _one-Mississippi, two-Mississippi…_

A cheer went up just as it had when the previous person had done their keg stand. Kristoff looked around and saw lots of people watching. He hated the attention. Not exactly his ideal way of starting off the night. 

He closed his eyes as he finished the count. On _ten-Mississippi_ Kristoff quickly released his thumb from the valve and pulled his hand away, letting the keg tap drop with a clank. 

Anna came back then, carefully balancing three red cups in her hands. Kristoff walked over to her, taking one from her. Hans, now back on his feet, took a cup from Anna as well. 

“You sure you don’t want to go, too?” Anna asked him. 

“No, no,” Kristoff shook his head and wiped his thumb along the side of his pants to dry it off. 

As they moved out of the kitchen and into one of the neighboring rooms, they encountered a large group of Anna’s friends. She excitedly began to introduce Kristoff to all of them, but he found himself struggling to keep the names straight. There were a few that he did his best to commit to memory, Madison and Chloe who she said were her best friends and then Ryder who was her _best_ best friend. But he knew there was no hope in him remembering the names of the rest of them. 

“Let’s play flip cup,” one of Anna’s friends said, pointing over to an empty table, “we have enough people for two teams.” 

“I can do _one_ round. But just the one,” Anna looked up at Kristoff and smiled, “Do you want to play?”

“Oh, um, I’ve never played before.”

“That’s ok, it’s a simple game.”

“I’m in,” Hans said. 

“Anna, you’re our anchor,” Madison said. 

“Right!” Anna gave a thumbs up and went to stand on the far left side of the table. 

Kristoff followed her, “Should I stand next to you?” 

“No, no, you need to go in the middle,” Ryder answered instead, directing him before going to stand at the far right side of the table himself. 

“O-ok.” 

Kristoff didn’t understand why he _needed_ to go in the middle, but he did as he was told. 

Hans came to stand next to him on his left, between him and Anna. Madison was on his right between him and Ryder. Five of Anna’s other friends got set up in a similar fashion across from them. A pitcher of beer was being passed around so everybody could fill their cups. 

Kristoff scratched at his pant leg. He had no idea what this game was. What was he supposed to do? What if he fucked up somehow and made them lose? 

“How do you play this game?” he quietly asked Hans. 

“How do you play flip cup?”

“Yeah.”

“You flip the cup.”

“ _Hans_.”

“Ok, ok,” he smiled, but thankfully it wasn’t that condescending smirk he was capable of, “Two teams, equal number of people on each team, everyone on this side of the table is on our team.”

“I got that so far.”

“It starts at that end,” Hans pointed in the direction of Ryder, “you go one at a time. You take your cup, you drink the beer, you flip the cup. Then the next person goes. And it goes all the way down the line and whichever team flips all their cups first-,”

“Wins.”

“Exactly.”

Kristoff nodded. Seemed simple enough. But there was one thing that still didn’t make sense. 

“Why do I have to be in the middle?”

“Because if you’ve never played before then you probably suck and the worst player always goes in the middle.”

Kristoff looked down at his cup, “Right.”

“I’m _kidding_. Christ. I mean, that _is_ why you’re in the middle. But,” Hans gave him a quick pat on the arm, “you’ll be fine. Just relax.”

There was a countdown _1, 2, 3_ and the game began. He watched as Ryder drank his beer and placed the cup right side down on the edge of the table, leaving part of the base hanging off. He then hit the bottom of the cup with his fingers and it flipped over, landing upside down on the table. 

Ok, that didn’t seem so hard. And the player on the other team that was directly across from Ryder had missed on their first try, so that meant their team was already in the lead. This was going to be fine. 

As soon as Ryder’s cup landed, Madison grabbed her cup off the table and drank. She missed her first attempt at a flip, but got it on the second. 

Kristoff then snatched his cup off the table as quickly as he could, drank it, and slammed it back down. Speed seemed to be an important part of the game and he wanted his turn done as fast as possible. He brought his other hand up to smack the bottom of the cup, but instead of flipping it just went skidding across the table. 

“Shit.”

He scrambled to get the cup back and set it up again. 

The other team’s second player still hasn’t successfully flipped their cup yet, so at least their team was still in the lead. 

Kristoff tried again, and missed again. 

He heard the other team cheer and looked up to see the player directly across from him going. They were tied now. 

“It’s ok, Kristoff. You got this,” Anna said loudly from her end of the table. 

He quickly set the cup back up on the edge of the table and hit it from the bottom again. Right as his landed on its side the other player’s cup landed perfectly upside down.

“ _Fuck._ ” 

Kristoff felt himself begin to panic. They were behind now. They were going to lose and it was his fault. The noise was becoming overwhelming. The music and the other team’s cheers and the _humm_ of a house full of voices. 

He felt a hand on his shoulder.

“You’re hitting it too hard,” Hans’s voice was low and calm, “The cup is light, it doesn’t take that much force to flip it. So, just, deep breath. Hit it nice and easy.”

Kristoff nodded. He placed his cup down on the edge of the table - deep breath - and hit the bottom of the cup just as instructed, nice and easy. It popped up, spun in the air, and neatly landed on its top. 

“I did it!” he said, his mouth hanging open in surprise that he actually fucking did it. 

He turned to Hans, but he had already started his turn - chugging his beer, placing the cup down, and flipping it onto its top in one swift motion. 

Their team was back in the lead.

Anna followed, also successfully flipping her cup on the first try. 

She threw her arms up in the air, “We won!”

“Woo!” Hans drummed his hands on the table in celebration.

Kristoff could hear Madison and Ryder cheering as well behind him, but he kept his eyes on Anna as she darted over to him and hugged him around his middle. He put an arm around her shoulders as she beamed up at him. 

~

After their game they moved into a different room. Kristoff tried to stay near Anna, but she was currently talking to one of her friends. 

Hans was standing quietly on the other side of him, looking out across the crowd. 

Kristoff thought about how he had helped him during the game, keeping him from completely embarrassing himself. Perhaps Hans wasn’t as much of an asshole as he initially thought. 

“Thank you,” Kristoff said, turning to face him, “For before. During the game.”

“I didn’t want to lose,” Hans said, sounding completely disinterested and not even looking at him. 

Well. Never fucking mind then. 

Kristoff sighed. But as he went to turn away, Hans spoke again. 

“How come you didn’t want to do a keg stand?”

Kristoff could probably list off half a dozen reasons why. It was unsanitary. Anna wasn’t going to do one. The amount of people looking at him when he was just _helping_ caused him enough anxiety. Anna said she wasn’t going to drink much tonight, which felt like a signal that he shouldn’t either. Binge drinking is, actually, super unhealthy. Just... Anna again as a reason. 

“I’m too big,” he said instead. 

Hans looked at him like he didn’t believe him for even a second.

“You said that about sledding too.”

“Yeah. And I almost died doing that.”

That made him laugh, and he turned to face Kristoff more, “You didn’t almost _die_.”

“Well, it felt like it in the moment.”

“Oh I believe you,” Hans pulled out his phone and unlocked it, “I have proof, remember.” 

Kristoff shook his head. The fucking picture. 

“I can’t believe she sent that in the group text.”

Hans grinned as he began to scroll through, “It livens it up a bit. Because there are a bunch of boring messages like ‘what time’, ‘9:30?’, ‘we got a table in the back’ but then it’s ‘AHHHH!’” 

Kristoff looked down at him and took a sip of his beer in order to hide his smile. 

Hans slipped his phone back in his pocket. He looked like he was going to say something else, but his eyes drifted away and over Kristoff’s shoulder, his smile disappearing. 

“Shit. I gotta go.” 

“What?”

But Hans just turned and walked away, disappearing around a corner and out of the room.

“Elsa!” 

Kristoff turned back around at the sound of Anna’s voice. Coming their way was a girl that had strikingly similar facial features to Anna, but whose long hair was a nearly white blonde. 

It all started to click in his mind. Elsa. Their conversation that first time they met as a group. The apparent bad blood between Hans and Anna’s sister. Kristoff quickly tried to put the memory of his use of the word ‘conquest’ out his mind as Anna gave her a hug and began to introduce them. 

“Elsa, this is Kristoff. Kristoff, this is my sister Elsa. And this is-,”

“Maren?” he said, finally noticing her standing there holding Elsa’s hand. 

“Hey, Kristoff,” she seemed equally surprised to see him. 

“That’s right, you two know each other,” Anna said, looking back and forth between them. 

“Yeah, a bit,” she turned to Anna then, “Where’s Ryder? I haven’t been able to find him.” 

“Oh, I saw him over there. Let’s go get him,” Anna said, pointing over to the next room. 

Her and Maren began to walk away then. Kristoff’s instinct was to go with her, but Anna gave him a quick “I’ll be right back” and was off. 

And then he was left alone. With Anna’s sister. 

Kristoff shifted his cup awkwardly in his hands and gave her a small nod, “Hey.” 

Elsa regarded him for a moment before speaking. 

“You look like you hate these kinds of parties as much as I do.”

He let out a nervous laugh and relaxed slightly, “Uh, yeah, a bit.”

“Well, that’s what the alcohol is for, right?” 

Then, from her purse, Elsa pulled out the smallest bottle of wine that Kristoff had ever seen in his life. A little plastic thing small enough to fit into the palm of his hand. She twisted the cap off and began to drink.

“What on earth is that?”

“Wine. I can’t stand the taste of beer,” she shuddered and scrunched up her face. 

Kristoff felt himself begin to smile, “So you bring a tiny bottle of wine with you to parties?”

“Yeah, well, I know what I like. Plus, these things are great,” she held it up so he could see the bottle better, “Perfect for the beach too.”

“Doesn’t seem like much for the whole night.”

“We’re not going to stay long,” she waved her hand dismissively, “Everyone comes to delta parties so we’re just here to see some friends and Anna and Ryder. But, these parties are all the same. By the time you're a senior it’s all kind of played out. You’re a senior, you know what I’m talking about.”

“Yeah. Right,” Kristoff agreed, not wanting to admit that it took until now, his last semester, to ever actually go to a college party. 

~

Kristoff remained Anna’s shadow the rest of the night. And as the party wore on they bounced around different parts of the house and from conversation to conversation. 

He noticed that Anna kept turning down refills whenever someone would offer to go get everybody a round. She had been nursing the same beer for the last two hours, so he did the same. 

It felt like Anna knew almost every person at the party. Constantly spotting someone new to talk to. But she would make sure to introduce him each time. And she would try her best to keep him involved in the conversation, smiling over at him and an occasional touch on the arm. And whenever they moved into a different room she would take his hand in hers to lead the way. So, that was nice.

Anna was so bright and animated as she spoke. Hand gestures and exaggerated facial expressions. Her hair would bounce and sway as she moved her head. The front pieces were pinned back, but most of it hung loose and free. The bright red in sharp contrast against her black clothes. 

He still wasn’t sure exactly what _this_ was between the two of them. And he knew deep down that he didn’t want a girlfriend. At least not right now. He just didn’t have the _time_. But he was enjoying just being in Anna’s company, for whatever this ended up being.

~

Him and Anna talked to Ryder for a while. Kristoff learned that his and Maren’s family ran this farm sanctuary located outside of New Paltz. Anna gushed about a visit she and Elsa had made the summer before. There apparently had been some baby goats that were particularly cute. 

Kristoff had no idea that Maren grew up on a farm. Or that she had a girlfriend. Or even that she had a brother. How could he have sat next to someone every semester for the last four semesters and not actually know a single thing about them? 

~

Kristoff swirled the warm beer around in his cup. Him and Anna were currently in a conversation with Madison and Chloe and some other girl whose name he could not remember. Something about Madison’s roommate borrowing a hair straighter without asking. 

Well, the four of them were in conversation and Kristoff was just sort of observing. It wasn’t that they were excluding him, he just had nothing to add. But he hated the feeling of just standing there while they talked. It made him feel large and looming, like he was hovering over them. 

Kristoff began to look around to see if there was anybody around for him to talk to. Elsa and Maren had already left the party. Maybe Ryder was still around somewhere? Heck, he’d even take talking to Hans as an option at this point. 

He actually spotted him then, far across the crowd in the next room over. Hans was standing over near a corner with some guy Kristoff didn’t recognize. They were talking, and smiling. Hans brought a hand up, placing it on the other guy’s hip and hooking two fingers into his belt loop. A small tug was all it took for the guy to move in closer, and Hans dipped his head down to kiss him. 

Kristoff chewed at the inside of his cheek as he absentmindedly rubbed his thumb along the rim of his cup. 

“Want to go get a refill?”

“Huh?” he looked down to see Anna smiling up at him. Beautiful Anna with her beautiful smile. 

She took his hand in hers, interlacing their fingers, “A refill, let’s go get one.”

Kristoff nodded, “Yeah, sounds good.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The rest of Anna and Kristoff’s night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay on this chapter. This one got away from me a bit and I’ve actually ended up chopping it in half. But the good news is that means the next chapter is mostly written already and there shouldn’t be as much of a wait for that one. 
> 
> CW: Reminder about the E rating and the smut tag. (I won’t put warnings for this particular thing on further chapters, so just be aware of that. However, I _will_ put warnings up before a chapter if it contains any sensitive topics or things that could be triggering. Those things are also already in the tags.)

Anna led Kristoff further into the house. The night was starting to wind down and there were less people at the party than when they first arrived, but it was still crowded. She found a room eventually that had no other people. It seemed to be a library or study, bookshelves along each wall and a few couches. She could still hear the low thump of the music along with the distant chatter of voices, but it was mostly quiet. 

“I thought we were getting refills,” he said.

Anna put her drink down on a table that was already littered with red cups, remnants of a long abandoned drinking game, “No, I’m done drinking for the night. I just said that to get us out of that conversation. You seemed like you needed a break from the crowd.”

Kristoff let out a nervous breath, putting his cup down alongside hers on the table, “I did.”

Anna sat down on one of the couches and Kristoff followed, sitting down beside her. 

“You enjoying the party?” she asked. 

“Yeah,” he said in a voice that wasn’t entirely convincing, “Sort of. Mostly.” 

“It’s ok, I gather it’s not really your scene.”

He sighed, “No, you’re right, it’s not.”

“Why not? I’m not,” she held a hand up, “I’m not judging or anything. I’m just curious.”

He looked down at his hands as he rubbed them together, “I’m not good with big crowds. Or with new people. I never really know what to say. I guess I just get nervous.”

“I can understand that.”

“Yeah?” he peered up at her. 

“Yes of course, everybody has social situations where they get nervous.”

“I can’t imagine you ever getting nervous like that. You seem like such a natural with,” he motioned back in the direction of the rest of the party, “people.”

If only he knew, she thought. Knew about how nervous she had been when first trying to get closer to him. She thought about the things Hans had said earlier that day, about pretending. And her reasoning to herself that she was just doing the same thing that guys did. 

But she looked at him and his warm brown eyes, she could feel that Kristoff was being genuine with her. So, she should be genuine with him too, right?

She straightened her spine and inched closer to him on the couch, “I’m going to tell you something, but it’s incredibly embarrassing.”

“Ok,” he said, somewhat hesitant. 

“I never needed any help in math.”

He tilted his head, “What?”

“My math class, it’s not that hard. I didn’t really need your help. Got a 92 on my last test, actually. Feeling pretty good about that.”

“But then why…” he trailed off. 

“To spend time with you?” she shrugged, “I wanted to, but I was too nervous to just _ask_ you straight out.” 

Kristoff searched her eyes, “You’re fucking with me right now.”

“I promise you I’m not. The whole walk back from sledding I kept trying to casually hint at it, but nothing was working, so I got desperate with the whole needing help thing.”

He stared at her with his mouth slightly open.

Anna groaned and covered her face with her hands, “It’s so embarrassing and silly and I’m an idiot.”

“No, no,” Kristoff reached up and took hold of her wrists, gently moving her hands away from her face, “this is just blowing my mind a bit. And _I_ feel like the idiot for missing whatever hints you were throwing my way.”

“Well, I guess we’re two idiots then.”

They both let out small laughs as they smiled at each other. 

Anna could feel her heart beating in her chest as she looked up at him. She let her eyes dance over his strong features and sweet smile. His hands were warm and completely engulfing her own as he held them. 

“I’m really glad you came tonight,” Anna said, crossing her legs in his direction and letting her calf brush up against his knee. 

His eyes flickered down to her legs and then back up to her face. Kristoff reached up with one of his hands and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. He then let his hand trail down, ghosting over her cheek and shoulder before moving down her back. 

“Me too,” he said as he leaned in close, brushing his nose against hers. 

Anna lifted her chin and pressed her mouth to his. She brought a hand up to his shoulder and pulled him closer. 

Kristoff placed his other hand on the knee of her crossed leg, running it down to her boot and then back up again. A soft moan escaped his mouth as he deepened the kiss. 

She tried to move as close to him as possible as his hand pressed against the small of her back. He felt so large, leaning over her like this. A part of her wanted him to just push her down into the cushions and take her right there. 

She moved her head slightly and his lips moved her to cheek and neck.

“Your place?” she breathed. 

He pulled back and leaned his forehead against hers, “Definitely.”

~

They held hands as they walked the few blocks back to his apartment, passing other groups and couples also heading home after a night out. With her other hand Anna held onto Kristoff’s arm, pulling herself close to him. The leather of his jacket was soft in a way that only comes from years of wear. He would smile down at her occasionally, and she would smile back, but they otherwise walked in silence. 

“Did you want anything to drink?” he asked once they had stepped through the front door of his apartment, motioning to the kitchen with his hand but keeping his face on hers. 

Anna shook her head, “No, I’m fine.”

“Ok.”

Kristoff put his hands in his pockets and then immediately took them back out, his fingers twitching at his sides. 

The first move would need to be made by her, Anna realized. Reaching out, she gathered up some of the fabric of his shirt and began walking backwards in the direction of his bedroom. He gave her a small grin as he brought his hands up to her hips, kissing her as he directed her path. 

Their coats and her purse were all cast aside as they kissed. She undid the buttons of his shirt, pushing it off over his shoulders, and he pulled his undershirt up over his head.

Anna placed her hands against the bare skin of his chest as she took in the sight of him. He was soft around the middle but strong and solid everywhere else. Those broad shoulders even more impressive in the flesh. 

His fingers brushed against the hem of her dress. 

Anna turned around, gathering up her hair and pulling it over one shoulder. Understanding what she was asking him to do, Kristoff carefully pulled down the zipper of her dress, placing a soft kiss against the exposed side of her neck. She turned back around and let the dress fall down her body, pooling in a heap at her feet. 

Kristoff let out a long, low breath as he brought his hands up to her waist. He pulled her close and slotted his mouth against hers. His thumbs brushed back and forth across bare skin as his large hands began to incircle her. 

She gave an approving hum as he tentatively brushed against the back of her bra. His fingers reached for the clasp, but clumsily fumbled as he tried to unhook it. 

“Shit, sorry.” 

Anna held in a laugh as she saw the concentration on his face while he struggled. “I got it,” she whispered as she reached her own hands back behind her. 

“Thanks,” he mumbled, blushing. 

She shrugged out of her bra and pulled him close again, both of their hands exploring. A few more stumbling steps and they made it to the bed. 

Anna laid on her back as Kristoff positioned himself between her legs and leaned forward to kiss her. The feeling of his bare chest against hers sent a wave of heat down her body. She rocked her hips up into him and he responded by grinding down into her. The thin fabric of her tights and panties allowed her to feel his full arousal pressed hard against his jeans and Anna moaned against his mouth at the sensation. The sound she made seemed to do something to him as he repeated the movement with more force. 

Large hands brushed against the waistband of her tights. He kissed her between her breasts and looked up at her, “Can I?”

Anna nodded and he sat up and back. He gently unzipped and removed her boots before slowly pulling her tights down, taking her panties with them. She felt her breathing quicken as his eyes took her in and his hands made their way up her legs.

Kristoff laid on his side next to her. Leaning over, he kissed her slowly as his fingers moved lazily across her skin. Calloused but gentle, they moved up her stomach. Squeezing at her breasts and rolling her nipples. Tracing down along the curve of her side and then in circles over her hip bone. Touching her everywhere except for the one spot that she was growing more and more desperate for him to touch. 

Anna dug her fingernails into his forearm and bit at his lower lip. 

“Ok, feisty,” he chuckled as he moved his hand towards her center. One finger slowly trailed up and down her slit, teasing her opening and then circling her clit. He hummed a small moan as he kissed her shoulder and pressed the finger into her, moving it in and out slowly. 

Anna let her fingers tangle in his hair as he added a second finger and quickened the pace, his thumb rubbing circles over her clit. 

Anna arched her back and rocked her hips forward. _Fuck_ , his hand felt unbelievable. 

Kristoff kissed down her neck and across her chest. He swirled his tongue around her nipple as he curled his fingers inside of her. 

“Kristoff, I’m-,” she gasped clutching tight to his bicep. 

“ _Yes_ ,” he brought his face back up to hers, “Anna, I want to watch you come.”

His words helped to finally bring her release. Her eyes squeezed tight and she snapped her legs together, trapping his hand in place. She rocked against him a few more times before warmth inside her boiled over and she cried out. 

“Good?” Kristoff asked once she opened her eyes again. 

Her brain was still fuzzy and she laughed as she looked up at him with his lopsided grin and mussed up hair, “Yes. Very.”

“Good,” he leaned back down to give her another kiss. 

Anna could feel his erection pressing hard against her hip through his jeans. 

“I have a condom in my purse.”

He shook his head, “Got my own.”

Kristoff stood up and opened the top drawer of his nightstand, taking out a box of condoms and a bottle of lube. Anna looked over at the box, reading the label. 

_Oh._ Well, the condom in her purse definitely would have been no good then. 

Anna moved to the edge of the bed and swung her legs over the side as he opened the box and took out a condom. She reached out to take hold of the front of his belt and pulled him closer. He looked down at her with an amused grin and she undid the buckle and opened his button and fly. She pulled his jeans and boxers down his hips and he kicked them away. 

His expression turned questioning, though, as she took the condom out of his hand. Dark eyes watched her intently as she opened the wrapper and slowly rolled the condom down over his cock. She squeezed some of the lube into her palm and then ran her hand up and down his shaft, jerking him as she coated it. 

“ _Shit_ ,” he hissed out as his hips bucked forward. 

She grinned up at him and he took hold of her face by her chin. He licked his lips as he traced the bottom edge of hers with his thumb. She tightened her grip as she stroked him again. 

“Get on your back,” he nearly growled. 

Anna scooted back on the bed, laying herself down, and Kristoff quickly followed. Kissing her, he reached one hand down to line himself up and then propped himself up on his elbows as he pressed into her. 

She gasped and dug her fingers into his shoulders. 

“You good?” he asked, bringing a hand to her cheek. 

“Yes,” she said, taking a deep breath, “you can move.”

Kisses peppered her cheek and neck as he began to roll his hips and she rocked hers in rhythm. Everything about him felt amazing. His large body moving above her. The soft moans and murmurs coming from him between their kisses. The wonderful stretch she felt down between her legs.

After one more hard kiss on the mouth he moved up and away from her. Kristoff let his hands slide down her body as he sat back on his heels. He then held tightly onto her hips and lifted them off the mattress, holding her up in position as he continued to fuck her.

While Anna missed the feel of his body against hers, the look in his eyes as they raked up and down her caused the heat pooling within her to rise. 

“Anna, _fuck_ , you’re amazing.” He slowed his pace way down then, allowing himself to come almost completely out of her before pushing all of the way back in. 

Anna’s mouth hung open as she watched his large form, a moan escaping from her every time he pressed back into her. The feel of him slowly refilling her over and over made her head swim. It felt incredible, tightening the coil inside of her just a tiny bit at a time. 

But the slow pace was also becoming maddening. She reached down and ran her fingers in circles over her clit. 

“Kristoff, please,” she began to try to roll her hips up into him, but he was holding her tight. 

He grinned, “Faster?”

“Yes,” she moaned, trying to move again. 

Kristoff released her hips as he leaned back over her, placing his hands flat against the mattress on either side of her head. As his speed picked up Anna’s eyes closed and her head rolled back. Her fingers moved in faster circles. 

“ _Shit_ , Anna,” his voice was thick, “You gunna come for me again?”

She nodded. 

“What do you need?”

“ _Harder._ ”

He instantly began to fuck into her with more force, his hips snapping hard against her body. How quickly he had been able to turn that on made Anna realize just how much he had been holding back - and maybe still was. What would it feel like if he didn’t hold back at all, she thought. 

Anna opened her eyes to look up at him. The muscles of his arms, shoulders, and chest all flexed tight as he held himself up above her. Shaggy blond hair falling forward into his face and bouncing with every thrust. Dark eyes staring down at her face and his jaw fixed in concentration. 

She wanted to keep watching him, but it was the sight of him that ended up finally pushing her over the edge. Clutching tightly to his sides, her eyes squeezed tight and her back arched as she cried out his name. 

A deep moan escaped from Kristoff as well as his rhythm faltered and then slowed to a stop. He dropped down onto his elbows, his face falling into the crook of her neck. Anna gently ran a hand up and down his back as they both caught their breaths. 

Kristoff kissed up her neck as his thumb ran back and forth across her opposite cheek. He lifted his head to look down into her face, “You ok?”

Anna brushed his hair back from his face and pressed a single soft kiss against his lips, “Yes.”

~

Anna sat down on the edge of the bed after pulling her panties back on. She held her bra in her hands as she looked back at Kristoff over her shoulder. 

He was reclined against the headboard, wearing nothing but his boxers. He was smiling at her, but it was a sleepy smile and she could see in his eyes how tired he was. 

She wanted to sleep over, but she didn’t want to _ask_ to sleep over. 

Kristoff had walked her back to her dorm last night when it wasn’t even that late. Heck he walked her back to her dorm after sledding, and that was the middle of the day. So, if he didn’t want her to spend the night, he’d be getting dressed and offering to walk her back now, right?

“You look tired,” she said to him. 

He let out a low laugh, “Yeah, I am. You ok if we just go right to sleep now?” 

_We._

Anna smiled and nodded. “I need something to wear though.”

“Right,” he said, moving to get up off the bed, “I should put something more on too.”

As he started to look through his dresser, Anna spotted a hoodie on the floor. It was the one that Kristoff had been wearing earlier that night when her and Hans had first arrived, the one they forced him to change out of. She quickly scooped it up and pulled it over her head before he turned around. 

His shoulders dropped as he shot her an amused look, “Oh, so _now_ it’s ok to wear?”

“For bed? Yes.”

“Do you need pants?”

Anna looked down at herself. The hoodie came down almost to her knees. “I think I’m good.”

He stepped into some sweatpants and pulled a tee shirt on and the two of them laid back down in bed. Kristoff wrapped a large arm around her and pulled her close, his chest hard against her back. 

He gave her a kiss on the back of her head, “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” she responded. 

It didn’t take long for his breathing to even out, becoming slow and steady. 

Anna’s eyes fluttered close and she fell asleep savoring the warmth of his body against hers.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anna and Kristoff get on the same page.

It had been a long time since Kristoff woke up with another person next to him in bed. It felt good. He tightened his arm around Anna and nuzzled his face into her hair, getting just the faintest hint of her fruity smelling shampoo. A sleepy groan greeted him in response. 

Anna turned over in his arms and brushed her nose against his chin, “M’rnng.”

“Good morning,” he pressed his lips to her forehead, “You hungry? I got eggs.”

“Mmm, that s’nds good,” she hummed. 

He gave her one last squeeze before rolling out of bed and heading into the kitchen. 

At some point as the scrambled eggs cooked, Anna padded out of the bedroom and headed right for the bathroom. He gave her a smile over his shoulder. She returned it with a small wave, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. 

When the eggs were done Kristoff divided them onto two plates, setting the one for Anna on the counter in front of the single kitchen stool. 

When she came out of the bathroom she took a seat and smiled up at him as she picked up her fork, “Thanks.”

“Of course,” he leaned a hip against the counter, facing her, as they began to eat, “I had a good time last night.”

“Me too,” she said quickly. 

They exchanged small smiles and then ate in silence for a bit. 

He _had_ had a good time last night. And it wasn’t just the sex, he really enjoyed spending time with her at the party. Though, sex _was_ incredible. He had been a bit more, erm, vocal than normal last night. Kristoff’s cheeks warmed slightly thinking about some of the things he had said. 

But he was still sure about his feelings of not wanting a serious relationship right now. It just wouldn’t work. He should say something right? He didn’t want to lead her on. He looked over at her while they ate. Should he have said something before they had sex? _Shit_ , was he an asshole for saying something sooner?

“I’m not looking for a boyfriend,” Anna blurted out suddenly. 

She caught him off guard and with his mouth full. He quickly chewed and swallowed. 

“I’m-I’m not either,” he responded, and then blinked and shook his head, “Not, I mean. I’m not looking for a _girlfriend_ , I mean.”

“Right, good,” Anna looked back down at her eggs then back up at him and put her fork down, “I feel like I need to explain more, about why.”

“You don’t have-,”

“I want to. Because it’s nothing about you specifically. It’s just,” she twisted her hands together, “I don’t want to be _attached_ , you know. To anybody.”

Kristoff placed his plate and fork down on the counter. “It’s ok, really, I-,”

“College is about experiences, you know?” she barrelled on, “So it’s not _just_ about being able to see other people. It’s about being able to spend time with my friends whenever I want, or just go _do_ whatever I want, without having to worry about having some boyfriend somewhere that I’m neglecting.”

Everything she was saying made complete sense. Kristoff nodded but wasn’t quite sure if it was his turn to speak.

“Sorry,” she cringed, “I just interrupted you a couple of times there didn’t I? You go, it’s your turn.”

“No, it’s ok. For me it’s, um,” he scratched at the back of his neck, “It’s my last semester and I have a big course load. Some really tough classes.”

“Right! Exactly. You’re graduating.”

“Yeah, and that needs to be my focus right now - graduating. So I have to spend a lot of time on school work. Not to mention the time I have to spend doing work-study. Plus my delivery shift at Fredo’s every Saturday night,” he ran his thumb back and forth across the edge of the counter, “So, I wouldn’t really have time for a girlfriend.”

“Well,” Anna smiled, “Perfect then. We’re on the same page.”

Kristoff nodded. It was. Right? The conversation felt incomplete though. They talked about what they _didn’t_ want but not about what they _did_ want. They probably should do that too. Anna had been brave enough to get the first half of this conversation going, so he figured it was only fair if he did the next bit. 

He cleared his throat, “I really did have a good time last night. And I would like it if we did it again. Not!” _shit_ , “Not _it_ it, I mean yes _it_ it too, but hanging out was the it I was talking about when I said it the first time.” 

Smooth. 

Anna reached a leg out and rubbed her foot along the outside of his calf, “I would like that, too. Both forms of _it_.” 

Kristoff moved closer to her, relieved that he hadn’t completely fucked that up, “So, what does that look like?”

She thought for a moment, “We hang out whenever we want, we do that,” she nodded her head towards the bedroom, “whenever we want, but no normal relationship-y obligations and we’re not exclusive?” 

“Yeah,” he nodded, “that’s perfect.”

It was. Being around her was incredible, but a commitment to _anybody_ was out of the cards for him. 

And it wasn’t just this semester that was the issue, it was what came after. Come the fall he could be working at a job on the other side of the state for all he knew. Anna, meanwhile, would still have three more years here. They were at completely different points in their lives. It wouldn’t work in the long run. 

Ever since transferring to Arendelle University, Kristoff had lived with a singular focus. And it had benefited him - a near perfect GPA and bright road ahead. He had planned that this semester would be no different than the last three, long hours with his nose in a book and lonely nights here in this apartment.

But then again, he never planned on meeting Anna. Maybe now, here at the end, he could allow himself just a little bit more. Allow himself just a small taste of the college life _other_ people got to have. Allow just a little bit of her light into his life for this short amount of time he would get to be around her. 

Kristoff leaned down to kiss her, but she placed a hand over his mouth before he could make contact. He pulled back with a smile, “What? Is ‘no morning kisses’ one of the rules too?”

“ _No_ , it’s just, morning breath plus eggs,” she scrunched up her nose. 

He rolled his eyes and began to walk over to the bathroom that was just off the kitchen, “Ok, ok. I’ll brush my teeth.”

As he brushed he turned to face her, giving her proof that he was eliminating his bad breath. 

Anna hopped off the stool and followed him in, “What about me?”

“Wha ‘bout yu?” he said with with toothbrush in his mouth. He rinsed and spat, “You’re not borrowing my toothbrush.”

“I’ll use my finger.”

“Your finger?”

Anna picked up his toothpaste and squeezed out a drop onto the tip of her finger, held it up for him to see, and then stuck her finger in her mouth. She ran it back and forth across her teeth as if it were a toothbrush. 

Kristoff shook his head, but couldn’t help but smile, “You’re ridiculous, you know that right?”

“Mmm hmm,” she nodded before rinsing and spitting, “But now we both have minty fresh breath.”

Anna pressed up onto her toes and Kristoff dipped his head down to meet her for a kiss. He brought his hands up to cup her face.

He pulled back from the kiss to look at her. Her hair was a crazy red mess, the make up she wore last night was smudged around and under her eyes, and she was wearing his dirty old hoodie that was probably five sizes too big for her. But _fuck_ she was beautiful. 

“So, morning kisses are ok. What about morning...” Kristoff tilted his head in the direction of the bedroom.

“Hmm,” Anna feigned thinking deeply, “I _guess_ that could be allowed.” 

“Good,” Kristoff moved his hands down to her hips and lifted her up. Anna let out a happy squeal as she wrapped her legs around his waist and kissed him again. He walked them into the bedroom, kicking the door open with his foot and they tumbled into the bed together. 

Anna began to tug at the hem of his shirt. He reached back behind his neck and pulled the shirt off over his head before quickly returning to kiss her more. She put a hand to his shoulder and pushed. He complied and rolled over. Anna straddled his hips and pulled his hoodie up and over her head. 

Kristoff let out a breath, thankful that she never put that bra back on last night. The sight of her last night in the dim light of his bedroom had nearly blown him away - perfect curves in all the right places and freckles in places he didn’t know freckles could be. But she was even more spectacular in the full light of day. 

Anna bent forward, placing a kiss on his mouth and then down along his jaw and neck. She began to shift her body and her kisses moved lower and lower. 

Kristoff felt himself grow harder as he realized what she was doing. 

Hooking her hands in his waistband, she pulled down both his sweatpants and boxers. Anna smiled up at him as she wrapped a hand around his cock and ran her thumb across the head. 

Kristoff bit his lip as he looked down at her. That smile, those eyes. He buried a hand deep into the tangled mess of her hair and let his head fall back against the mattress as she took him into her mouth. 

~

Kristoff closed the car door and let out a long sigh, sinking deep into the seat. He checked the time - 2:17am. It had been another long and busy night of deliveries. At least the tips had been good. 

But, _fuck_ , he was exhausted. 

He had been able to get a nap in that afternoon. Maybe he could get in another one tomorrow. Or, well, later today to be accurate. It wouldn’t take too much time away from the studying he needed to get in. He could make it work. 

Regardless, last night had been absolutely worth it. He smiled to himself as he thought back on it. 

As he was about to start his car his phone began to vibrate. He pulled it out of his pocket. It was Anna - and she was calling him. 

_Why?_

He tapped the screen and brought the phone up to his ear, “Hello?” 

“KRISTOFF!”

He instantly pulled the phone away from his ear at the loud sound. He could hear lots of other voices and laughter, as if Anna had him on speaker phone. 

“Hello Anna’s hot pizza man!” he heard one girl’s voice say. 

“Fuck-, shut up!” Anna laughed. 

“Anna? Hello?” he said into the phone, making sure to keep it a safe distance away. 

“Kristoff! Ok, ok, ok,” she was slurring her words, “We ordered pizza and you _have_ to deliver it.”

He smiled, “I _have_ to?”

“Yes! We requested you special.”

Kristoff felt a warmth in his chest, “Ok, I’m heading back to Fredo’s now, I’ll be there in a bit.”

“Thank youuuuu,” she cooed before hanging up. 

~

Kristoff stood holding the pizzas in the quiet glow of the light that streamed out through the glass front doors of Castle Hall. Three pies seemed like too much for just Anna and some of her friends, he thought. He pulled out his phone and began to scroll through his contacts. Fredo’s always put the phone numbers on the delivery tickets, but Kristoff had Anna’s number so he didn’t need to check it. He hit the call button, but made sure to keep the phone a few inches away from his ear this time.

“Kristoff!” Anna shouted as she answered the phone. 

“Hey, I’m down at the front door and-,”

He was cut off with the sounds of cheers and the call ended. Letting out a small laugh, he slid the phone back into his pocket. 

Then, through the glass door, he could see not just Anna, but a large group excitedly rushing towards him. Ok, so maybe three pies wasn’t too much.

Anna was the first one out of the door. “Our pizza hero!” 

The quiet of the night was suddenly broken by chaos. A number of them were friends of Anna’s that he recognized from the party the night before. But there were plenty more that he had never seen before. It felt like half the dorm was suddenly swarming around him. Chattering and laughing and few just chanting the word ‘pizza’ over and over again. 

They were, all of them, completely wasted. 

“I pay you in kisses,” Anna grabbed him by the hand and pulled his arm down, placing kisses on his cheek.

“Oh, um,” Kristoff did his best to keep the pizzas in his other hand balanced. 

“No Anna,” Ryder said, taking the pizzas from him, passing them off to someone else, and then handing over a crumpled mess of small bills, clearly cobbled together from everyone present, “We pay him in _money_. People deliver pizza for _money_.”

Anna let out a loud laugh before looking back up at him. Her face was flushed and her eyes were droopy. 

“Hi,” he smiled down at her, “You seem like you had a fun night.”

She bit her lip and nodded.

The crowd of her friends started moving back into the building. Anna’s eyes darted over to them and then back to him. Kristoff knew it was time to say goodbye. 

“Go on, go eat it before it gets cold.”

“Ok. Goodnight, and thank you again.”

He nodded, “Goodnight.”

Anna let go of his hand and began to follow her friends back to the front door. She flashed him a bright smile and a wave over her shoulder before disappearing with them back inside and up the stairs. 

And just as suddenly as the quiet had turned to chaos, it turned back into quiet. 

Kristoff looked up at the building. He smiled, imagining the fun she must have had that night with her friends that led them to drunk 2am pizza. 

There was a small pang in his heart, though. Not that he couldn’t be up there with her right then - he knew he didn’t belong up there. It was that he never had this for himself.

But, it wasn’t worth spending time thinking about that. He knew he was lucky to be at this school now. And the road that had led him here mattered much less than what lay ahead of him once he graduated. 

Kristoff stuffed the money into his pocket and turned to head back to his car.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two more Fridays. 
> 
> AKA
> 
> Everybody loves a montage chapter, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Content Warning: biphobic/homophobic comments (no slurs); drug use (pot)]

Kristoff was doing his best to pay attention to what Professor Oaken was saying, but he kept hearing a buzzing sound. Was someone’s phone going off? He looked around and saw that people were looking at him. Fuck, was that _his_ phone going off?

Kristoff dug into his bag and grabbed his phone, quickly putting it on silent and dropping it back in without looking at what the messages were. He had never really thought about making sure to put his phone on silent during class before. 

After class he opened his phone to see what the messages were. They were all in the group text he had with Anna and Hans. 

(Anna): _so_  
(Anna): _i was thinking_  
(Anna): _doing the assignment at kristoff’s last friday was WAY better than doing it in the library, right?_

(Hans): _100%_

(Anna): _ok, glad i’m not the only one_

(Hans): _couch > library chairs_  
(Hans): _plus drinks in the fridge_

(Anna): _lets just do that again this week then_

(Hans): _i’m down_

(Anna): _kristoff, do you agree?_  
(Anna): _…kristoff_  
(Anna): _kristoff kristoff kristoff_  
(Anna): _kristoff, if you agree then say nothing for 5 min_

Then five minutes later...

(Anna): _great!_

Kristoff pinched the bridge of his nose and then typed out what was probably his only option at that point. 

(Kristoff): _fine_

(Anna): _YAYY!_

~

That Friday, as they worked on their assignment, they sat in the same spots they had the week before - him and Hans on his couch and Anna sitting on the floor on the opposite side of the coffee table. Hans had his feet up on the couch again, but at least he remembered to take his shoes off first this time. Though he had also taken a water bottle out of the fridge again without asking, so, only partial credit there. 

Kristoff’s thoughts were more focused on Anna anyway. Besides seeing her briefly in class yesterday, Kristoff hadn’t really seen her since the night he delivered the pizzas to her dorm last weekend. Which was fine, of course. It was in line with how they had defined things. They had left how often they would see each other as just ‘whenever’. Which wasn't very clearly defined, but he was kind of hoping that tonight could be that next ‘whenever’. 

“So, uh,” Kristoff said, trying to sound casual, “what’s everybody’s Friday night plans.”

Anna looked up from her books and gave him a small smile, “No plans yet.”

“I’m going to that party at kappa,” Hans said. 

Anna’s head snapped over to him, “Kappa?” 

Hans shrugged as if it were nothing, “Yeah.”

Kristoff looked back and forth between the two, not understanding the significance, “Is that another frat?”

“Sorority,” they both said in unison. 

Anna’s eyes narrowed as she continued on, “How are _you_ going to a kappa party? Their parties are always closed. You need to be on their _list_ or whatever to get in.”

“Why are their parties closed?” he was doing his best to keep up with this conversation.

“Because they’re stuck up,” Han answered before returning his attention to Anna, “And _yes_ , you need to be on their list to get in, but I _am_ on the list. And I can get you guys in if you want.”

“And how exactly did _you_ manage to get on a list to an exclusive party?” Kristoff asked. 

Hans flashed him a grin, “Because I’m charming.” 

Kristoff stared back at him for a moment and tapped his pen against his book before looking over to Anna, “Is this a party you would want to go to?”

“I mean, yeah. I’ve never been to one of their parties before and they’re supposed to be nice,” she chewed at her lip, “Do you want to go?”

Of course his initial answer would be no. The idea of another big party wasn’t exactly what he had been hoping for. Neither was another _group_ outing. But, the party last Friday hadn’t been quite as bad as he had feared beforehand. Plus, if Anna really wanted to go to this one...

Kristoff nodded, “I guess we’re going to the kappa party then.”

~

Anna and Hans arrived back at his apartment a little after 10:30pm. Anna was wearing another dress and she had on those same high heeled boots that she wore last week. 

Kristoff held out his arms, proudly displaying the not-a-hoodie flannel shirt that he had dressed himself in for the night, “Well?”

But neither of them looked impressed.

“What?” he dropped his arms to his sides, “What is wrong with this shirt? It’s just like the one you guys made me wear last week.”

“That’s _true_. And for most parties that would be fine,” Anna said gently, “But this is a _nicer_ party so…”

Kristoff sighed and motioned an arm towards his bedroom, “Fine. Go.”

He followed both of them in and sat on the edge of his bed as Anna and Hans began to dig through the clothes in his closet. They eventually picked out a sweater for him to wear, a dark blue one that he owned. 

As he began to unbutton his flannel, Kristiff noticed that Hans had created a small pile of his clothes on the floor.

“What’s that about?” he asked.

“That?” Hans smirked, “Those are the clothes you can throw out.”

{ ~ }

As they walked into the house, Anna looked up and around in amazement. The kappa house wasn’t as large as the delta house they had been at the week before, but the inside of it was far more beautiful. Living in a place like this would be _so_ much nicer than living in the dorms, she thought.

Anna had briefly considered joining a sorority at one point. The idea of sisterhood and living in a nice, big house with a bunch of other girls sounded fun. 

But, it had also seemed limiting. While Greek life meant many activities and social events, it also meant doing exactly what was _other_ people had planned out. Anna liked her wide variety of friends and the freedom of not being attached to just a single organization on campus. She would never want her weekends to ever be _predictable_. 

Kristoff’s large hand on the small of her back brought her out of her thoughts, “Drinks?”

She smiled up at him and nodded. 

“This way,” Hans said, as they followed him through the crowd.

{ ~ }

It was only about a half hour into the party when Hans first spotted Ashely from across the room. He told Anna and Kristoff that he’d be right back, but they had been giving each other heart eyes all night so he was sure they wouldn’t miss his presence if he ended up being gone for longer. 

“Hey beautiful,” he said, walking up to her from behind. 

Ashley turned around and then sagged her shoulders when she saw who it was, “Oh, it’s just you.”

“Just me? Come on, I think I deserve a little more than that,” he gave her his best smile and her expression softened somewhat, “Thanks for getting me on the list, by the way.”

“Yeah, no problem,” she motioned her head in the direction of the stairs, “Shall we?”

“Lead the way,” he said and he followed her up the stairs and down the hall to her bedroom. 

Hans sat on the edge of her bed as she bent down to get the stuff out from the bottom drawer of her desk. He tilted his head to the side and enjoyed the view it gave him of her ass. 

“You still prefer edibles?” she asked over her shoulder. 

“Yes, definitely. Smoking is gross.”

Ashley stood and walked over to him with a small baggie in her hand, “Gummy bears good?” 

“Perfect,” Hans went to reach up for it but Ashely pulled it back out of his grasp.

“These are really strong, ok?” she gave him a stern look, “Only take one at a time.”

He wanted to roll his eyes - it was only fucking _pot_ \- but he gave her a soft smile instead. Ashley was one of the best hook-ups on campus for this stuff and he wanted to stay in her good graces. “Of course, thank you.”

Hans took out his money and they made the exchange. He returned his wallet to his back pocket and slipped the baggie into his front.

“Anything else I can do for you?” Ashley asked, slightly annoyed, when he didn’t get up to leave right away.

“No,” he grinned, “is there anything I can do for _you_.”

“ _Hans_ ,” She gave him a glare. 

“Oh come on,” he cooed, standing up and moving close to her, “We had fun last time, didn’t we?” 

She let out a small hum, not entirely convinced but also not a denial. 

There were plenty of other people at this party Hans could go home with tonight if Ashley wasn’t interested. And he wasn’t in the habit of begging for second or third rounds with people. The more times you slept with a person, the more risk there was for getting _attached_. But they were already in her bedroom, so he figured he might as well shoot his shot. 

Hans brushed back some of her hair, letting his fingertips trace across her collarbone. She melted a bit more at his touch, her shoulders relaxing. 

“I still think about that night.” He didn’t actually, but that wasn’t important. People always seemed to like the idea that they had left some _special_ impression, so he was willing to let them think that. 

Ashley huffed out a laugh, “Oh, you do?” Her tone was sarcastic but she brought her hands up to his hips and grinned, “Tell me, what do you think about?”

Lowering his voice, Hans leaned in closer, “How amazing you were. The way you felt. The way you,” he dragged his teeth across his bottom lip and Ashley’s eyes darted down to the sight, “tasted.” 

Her eyes met his again and she shook her head, “You think you’re such hot shit, don’t you?”

Hans just shrugged. 

“Fuck it. Yeah. _But_ ,” she pulled back as he had started to lean in for a kiss, “Not right now. Come find me in a few hours?”

He smiled, “Absolutely.”

{ ~ }

As they walked into the dining room, Anna’s attention was caught by the beautiful wood inlay on the ceiling and along the tops of the walls. She took her phone out and began to take some pictures.

“Taking pictures of the ceiling?” Kristoff asked in a slightly teasing voice. 

“Why, you want to be in one?” Anna turned to lean her back up against him and quickly held up her arm and took a selfie. It was faster than Kristoff was able to prepare for and he ended up with a stunned expression in the picture. 

“Delete that.”

“Never,” she smiled up at him. 

He smiled back down at her, “Why _were_ you taking pictures of the ceiling?”

Anna wrung her hands together. Kristoff had already seen some of her work and liked it, so hopefully he wouldn’t laugh at her when she told him this. “Whenever I see something that I want to sketch but can’t at that moment, I take a picture of it. Then I print it out later and put the pictures in this envelope that I keep tucked inside my sketchbook. That way, I can sketch them later whenever I want.”

“What do you sketch?” a voice from her other side cut in.

Anna jumped and turned to see that it was Hans. “Where did you disappear off to?”

He narrowed his eyes, “Don’t change the subject. What’s this sketching thing you were talking about?”

“She’s an artist,” Kristoff said before Anna could come up with a response. 

“Really?” his eyebrows went up. 

“No! I’m not,” Anna groaned. 

“She’s really good.”

“What?” Hans sounded slightly offended, “How come _I_ haven’t been allowed to see any of this art?” 

“Because, it’s not-,” Anna felt her cheeks getting warm, “It’s just a hobby. It’s nothing. Let’s just drop it.”

They were quiet for a moment before both mumbling a sorry. But then they were just standing there with guilty looks on their faces. Anna really just wanted to move past it. 

“Who wants a refill? I do. Great. Let’s go,” Anna said quickly and headed off in the direction of the kitchen, Kristoff and Hans following behind. 

{ ~ }

Anna seemed to know less people at this party than she did at the bigger one last week. Kristoff didn’t mind though because that - plus Hans’s random disappearing acts throughout the night - meant he got more one on one time with her. 

“We seem to have lost Hans again,” he said to her as the night began to wear on. 

She shrugged, “I’m sure he can find his own way home.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

“Maybe _we_ ,” Anna moved closer to him and slipped her hand into his, interlacing their fingers, “can start to find our own way home?”

Kristoff put his cup down on the nearest table, “Let’s go.”

{ ~ }

Anna straddled Kristoff’s lap as he sat on the edge of his bed. She rolled her hips against his, feeling his arousal through his jeans as he palmed at her bare breasts. Her own hands roamed across his chest and shoulders. 

Kristoff pulled back from kissing her neck and looked at her, his eyes dark with desire. “Anna, I, um,” he took a deep breath, “I wanted to ask you something and you can absolutely say no and it’s fine, I just, um-,”

He stumbled over his words, seeming unable to figure out how to ask this question. 

“What is it?” Anna gave his bare shoulders an encouraging squeeze. 

Kristoff’s hand slowly slid down one of her legs before coming to rest on the outside of her high heeled ankle boot. “Would you mind keeping these on?” he whispered. 

Anna’s eyebrows went up. She hadn’t expected that. But, she also wasn’t bothered by the question. It was different, for sure. But nothing really strange. 

Had he been thinking about asking her this all night? She wore these same heels last Friday night. Had he thought about it then to? Thought about it all week since? The idea of sweet Kristoff thinking dirty thoughts about her being in just her high heels and nothing else stirred something in her. 

Kristoff looked away and retracted his hand, “Sorry, if that was creepy or-”

“No, no, no,” Anna cut him off, “I like the idea.”

He looked back at her, eyes wide, “Yeah?”

“Yeah. I mean, I’ll have to take them off to take my tights off but then I can, you know, put them back on.”

Kristoff nodded, “Ok.”

Anna moved off his lap to sit next to him. She removed her boots, slid off her tights and panties, and then put the boots back on. She peered up at Kristoff. He was looking at her face and gave her a small smile. 

Anna took a deep breath and stood, then took a few steps out into the middle of the room. She knew she was blushing. He had obviously seen her naked before, but there was something different about this. She couldn’t help but smile though, equal parts nervous and excited. Anna did a little spin for him and then put her hands on her hips.

“You like?”

Kristoff’s eyes swept up and down her as he chewed at the inside of his cheek. Then he stood and walked over to her. “I like,” he whispered before kissing her, “Thank you.”

He took her by the hips and guided her back to the bed and she sat down in the same spot he had just been. Anna thought he was about to keep having her move back on the bed, but instead he sank down to kneel on the ground in front of her. The sight of Kristoff, all big and broad and strong, kneeling down in front of her caused the heat that had already been growing inside her to intensify. It made her feel powerful. 

Kristoff lifted one of her legs and kissed at the inside of it, just above the top of her boot. One gentle kiss at a time he made his way up her leg. Anna leaned back, placing her palms flat on the mattress behind her, and watched him. She wet her lips as he moved past her knee and then higher up her thigh. Higher and higher, but then stopping when he reached her hip.

There was a gleam in his dark eyes as he put her leg down and lifted up her other one. He repeated his actions, placing a kiss just above the line of her boot and slowly moving up. He was teasing her, intentionally dragging this out to try to wind her up. 

Anna lifted up the leg he wasn’t currently kissing and positioned her foot on his shoulder, slightly digging the sharp end of her heel into his flesh. 

Kristoff stopped and looked up at her, his eyes wide and his mouth open.

She stared back at him, “Hurry up.”

His eyes danced across her face and then he smiled, “Yes ma’am.”

Large hands wrapped around her thighs and Anna gasped as his mouth met her center. 

{ ~ }

Kristoff was woken up in the morning by what felt like tiny icicles creeping up under his shirt. He squirmed away.

“ _Oh god_. Your fingers are so cold.”

Anna giggled, “I know, that’s why I’m warming them up.”

Kristoff grumbled but put an arm around her and pulled her close against his chest, “Fine.”

Her fingers crept back up under his shirt, settling along his sides.

He kissed her forehead and closed his eyes again, hoping to get a bit more sleep. 

{ ~ }

(Hans): _party at the lacrosse house this friday_

(Anna): _i heard!_  
(Anna): _we should all go together_

(Hans): _sounds good_

(Anna): _also_  
(Anna): _a thought_  
(Anna): _instead of going to kristoff’s in the afternoon on Friday to do the group work and then going BACK there Friday night to go out to the party, why don’t we just combine the two?_

(Hans): _so going there later in the evening, doing the work, and then leaving straight from there to go to the party?_

(Anna): _yeah_  
(Anna): _it will save so much time!_

(Hans): _makes sense_  
(Hans): _instead of having to make two separate trips off campus on the same day_

(Anna): _exactly!_  
(Anna): _i’m a genius_  
(Anna): _we can get food too!_

(Hans): _definitely_

(Anna): _PIZZA_  
(Anna): _kristoff gets a discount at fredos_

(Hans): _perfect!_

(Kristoff): _guess I don’t actually get to have a say in any of this?_

(Hans): _no_

(Anna): _nope_

{ ~ }

That Friday night after they finished their work, they ordered pizza from Fredo’s as planned. From her spot on the floor in front of Kristoff’s coffee table, Anna watched Hans as he chewed and ate the pizza. His face scrunched up. 

“It’s not as good when you’re sober, right?”

He swallowed and shook his head, “Not as good when you're sober.”

“It’s still ok though,” Kristoff said, “hard to really fuck up pizza.”

Hans looked over at him from the other end of the couch, “You’re from upstate, you don’t get to have a say in what _is_ and _is not_ good pizza.”

Kristoff adjusted how he was sitting to face Hans more, “Excuse me?” 

“I’m just saying if _this_ ,” he held up the slice he was working on, “is any indication, then upstate pizza is shit.”

Kristoff picked up the crust from his most recent slice and tossed it at Hans but he blocked it with his elbow.

“Don’t throw food! Who throws food in their own living room?” Hans was trying to sound offended, but Anna could see the corners of his mouth curling up. 

She smiled as she looked between the two of them. They weren’t paying her much attention as they playfully argued with each other about the pizza, so Anna was able to discreetly bring her phone up over the edge of the coffee table and snap a picture of them. She quickly dropped the phone back into her lap and took another bite of her slice. 

{ ~ }

When it was finally time to head over to the party, Hans began to pull his shoes back on. As he stood up off the couch, he noticed his and Anna’s books still sitting on the coffee table. 

“Shit,” he looked over at her, “I found the flaw in this plan. Our books.”

Anna pulled her purse up over her shoulder and gave him a confused look, “What about our books?”

Hans rolled his eyes, “Well, they’re here but we’re leaving. And I’m not bringing school books with me to a party like some fucking nerd.”

“We don’t need to bring them with us. They’ll be here when we…,” and then she trailed off. 

Anna blushed and Kristoff froze with his jacket halfway on. 

Obviously _’when we come back here later’_ is what she was going to say until she realized that the _’we’_ in that sentence didn’t work. Which meant Anna had been assuming from the beginning that she’d be coming back to Kristoff’s apartment that night. So, she knew how she was going to get _her_ books back, she just hadn’t taken _him_ into consideration. 

Hans had figured that the two of them had hooked up already, he just didn’t realise it had apparently become a regular thing. For a moment he became hyper aware of his third wheel status in the room, but he brushed it off.

“Right,” he said, breaking the awkward silence, “I can just swing by whenever over the weekend to pick up my books.”

“Good. Yep. That works,” Kristoff said quickly, pulling his jacket on the rest of the way. 

~ 

“It’s such a stupid rule, I hate it. You _have_ to live on campus for the first two years but you also _can’t_ have a car while you live on campus.”

Hans nodded along with what Anna was saying as he took a sip of his beer. It wasn’t as if Arendelle U actually banned you from owning a car if you lived on campus, they just didn’t offer any on campus parking for resident students. It did suck, but Anna seemed extra passionate about this perceived injustice for some reason. 

“And the nearest decent place to go shopping around here is that outlet mall, but it’s like an hour and a half away.”

 _There was the reason_ , Hans thought with a smile. 

“Doesn’t Kristoff have a car? He could drive you, right?” he asked.

Anna’s eyes went wide with realization, “Yes! He _does_ have a car. He can drive us!”

_Us?_

She reached out and grabbed his upper arm, “This is such a great idea. We’ll ask Kristoff when he gets back from the bathroom. Maybe we can all go tomorrow. It’ll be like a little road trip!” 

Anna had this way of getting super excited about the silliest things. Her smile would go all wide and her eyes would light up. She was smiling like that now as she talked, and Hans couldn’t help but smile wide back at her. 

Without realizing it he had lifted up a hand to touch at the arm that she had extended out to him. Once he noticed, Hans dropped it and pulled back slightly. The motion caused Anna’s hand to break contact with his arm as well. She didn’t really seem to notice as she continued to talk about all these potential plans for tomorrow. 

It was just a one time thing. Anna had said it herself that night. For the best, probably. 

And they were friends now, according to Anna. It was a nice sentiment on her part, for sure. But, Anna seemed like the type of person who would declare someone a life long friend after only knowing them for five minutes, so he knew he should probably take it with a grain of salt.

{ ~ }

“An hour and a half drive? Each way?” Kristoff was trying to wrap his head around this plan for tomorrow that Anna and Hans had come up with while he was gone, “Why would you go an hour and half away to go shopping when there is a perfectly good Target 15 minutes from campus?”

Hans scrunched up his nose at that. 

“Come on, it’ll be fun! And it’s more than just shopping, they have all these great spots to get food there and stuff. It's a huge place,” Anna clasped her hands together under her chin, “ _Please?_ ”

Kristoff had a lot of studying and school work that he had planned to get done tomorrow. And he usually liked to get a nap in on Saturdays, now that his Friday nights didn’t end as early as they used to. 

He sighed as he looked back and forth between the two of them. It was just one day. It would be fine. 

“Ok, but we _have_ to be back in time for my delivery shift.”

“Yes! Thank you!” Anna bounded forward, giving him a big hug. 

{ ~ }

“Who is that girl Hans is talking to?” Kristoff asked, looking over in one direction. 

Hans had already done his disappearing act for the night and Anna hadn’t really paid attention to where he went. She followed Kristoff’s eye line across the party and spotted him over in the next room. He was flirting with a girl with long blonde hair and a very short skirt. 

She shrugged, “I don’t know her. But I assume she’s the person he’s trying to go home with tonight.”

When Anna turned back to Kristoff, she saw that he had a confused look on his face. 

“But, I thought-,” his eyebrows knotted together as he looked up and then back down at her. 

“Kristoff, you can’t really be mad at him for ditching us. I mean, the two of _us_ have snuck off and left _him_ at parties the last two Fridays.”

“Right. Yeah, yeah, you’re right,” he nodded and took a sip from his cup. 

~

The night was starting to wind down, and Anna was about to ask Kristoff if he wanted to head out, when she saw Hans quickly walking their way. 

“Hey guys,” he said as he reached them, his voice slightly high pitched. He walked around to stand on the opposite side of Kristoff

Something was up.

“Things not work out with that girl?” Anna asked. 

“No, that’s going great,” Hans peered around Kristoff’s body and across the room, “She’s just in the bathroom.”

“So, who are you hiding from?”

“Why do you think I’m hiding from someone?” he asked defensively. 

Anna and Kristoff just stared at him. 

“Ugh, ok, fine. Blue baseball cap.”

Anna casually scanned the crowd until she spotted him. A mean looking guy with a stern expression on his face. He was looking around intently, as if he had come to the party specifically to find Hans. 

“Why do you need to hide from him?” Kristoff asked. 

“Does it matter?”

“Well, considering the fact you’re literally using me as a human shield right now? I think I have a right to know.”

“Ok, ok,” Hans grimaced, “I kinda, storta, maybe, accidentally… slept with his girlfriend.”

“ _Hans_ ,” Anna shook her head. 

“Moral judgements aren’t helpful right now, ok?” he hissed. 

“Westergaard!”

Anna jumped at the sound and she saw Hans and Kristoff’s eyes go wide as well. They had stopped paying attention to where he was in the crowd and now, suddenly, blue baseball cap guy was standing directly behind Hans and Kristoff. Up close now, she could see that he was bigger than Hans. And Hans wasn’t a small guy by any means - nearly six foot and in good shape. This guy was bigger though. 

But not as big as Kristoff. 

Hans and Kristoff both turned slightly in his direction. 

“Heyyy,” Hans said, trying to sound casual. 

“Don’t fucking ‘hey’ me, you piece of shit!” His face was turning red and he looked pissed off and maybe a little drunk. 

Kristoff handed his cup to Anna, gave her a reassuring nod, and then turned to face the guy fully. “Hey man,” he said in a stern voice, “not really the time or place for a fight.”

“This little _asshole_ ,” he pointed at Hans, “deserves to get his face beat in.”

“I’m sure he does,” Kristoff said, and Hans shot him a glare, “But it’s not going to happen in the middle of this party.”

There were a few groups of people near them who had begun to take notice of what was happening. Their quiet murmurings caught blue baseball cap guy’s attention, and he deflated a bit as he noticed they now had an audience. 

Kristoff crossed his arms in front of his chest, “You should probably just leave.”

He let out a defeated huff, realizing that he was both outnumbered and outgunned, and stomped away. The three of them stood there silently as they watched him head out the front door of the house, slamming it behind him. 

As soon as the guy was out of the house Kristoff doubled over, letting out a deep breath and placing his hands on his knees, “ _Hoooly_ shit.”

“Kristoff?” Anna rushed forward, concerned, and placed a hand on his shoulder. Hans was on the other side of him, looking surprised and worried as well. 

“That was so scary,” Kristoff stood back up straight and placed a hand on his chest, “My heart is beating like crazy. I thought we were really going to have to fight that guy.”

Hans’s shocked expression slowly changed into a smile as he began to laugh. He clasped a hand onto Kristoff’s shoulder, “What was there to be scared of? You and I could have taken him easy.” 

“ _What?_ I’ve never been in a fight in my _life_.”

That just made Hans laugh harder and Anna laughed along as well. 

“Fuck,” Kristoff ran a hand through his hair, “I need a drink.”

Anna held up their cups, “These are almost empty.”

“I need a refill, too. I’ll go get it,” Hans took the cups from Anna and headed off in the direction of the kitchen. 

{ ~ }

Hans smiled to himself as he walked to the kitchen, thinking about how only Kristoff could do something so impressive one second and then so completely embarrassing the next. 

He stepped through the doorway and then froze when he saw that the only other people in the kitchen were O’Malley, Anderson, and Sullivan. They were all seniors on the lacrosse team and all lived here in this house.

“Hey Westergaard,” Anderson sneered. 

For the briefest of moments Hans thought about pretending he walked into the wrong room. But he was standing there in the kitchen holding three nearly empty cups. Obviously he was there to use the keg and there was no way to pretend otherwise. And he damn sure wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction of watching him run away. 

So he gave them a nod and continued walking forward to the keg. He just had to fill up the three cups and go. It wouldn’t take long. 

“Saw that blonde chick you were talking to. Pretty hot,” O’Malley said. 

“Jealous?” Hans kept his eyes down as he began to fill the cups. 

O’Malley scoffed, “Hardly. We just appreciate it when you make _that_ choice when you’re at parties in this house. No one really wants to see the other option.”

“How does it work anyway?” Anderson feigned curiosity, “You’ve never explained it to us. How do you decide?” 

And then it was Sullivan’s turn to chime in apparently, “Yeah, do you, like, flip a coin before each night? Heads you’re gay, tails you’re straight?”

“No, no, no. _Tails_ would definitely be gay,” O’Malley said and they all laughed as if it were the most clever and original joke ever. 

Hans clenched his jaw as he moved the tap to the next cup. One cup done, two to go. 

{ ~ }

The adrenaline from the almost-fight had mostly worn off as Kristoff and Anna talked and laughed about the whole ridiculous incident. Hans reappeared beside them then, holding out their now full cups. 

Kristoff went to say something to him, but then closed his mouth when he saw the look on Hans’s face. 

His forehead was creased and his mouth was a straight line. There was a hardness in his eyes too. Very different from the bright, easy smile that had been on his face when he left to get them refills. 

Kristoff glanced over at Anna as they both took their cups back. She seemed to notice the change too. 

“Hans, is everything ok?” she asked him. 

“Yeah,” he said with a flat voice, “I’m going to go find that girl I was talking to before.” He turned and walked away. 

“We’ll see you tomorrow, right?” Kristoff called after him. 

“Yeah, sure,” Hans answered over his shoulder, not looking back. 

{ ~ }

The blonde girl’s eyes lit up when she saw him approaching, “There you are.”

Hans put on a smile, “Yeah, I was looking for you.”

“Well,” she wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her body against his, “you found me.”

She seemed ready to go, and he was ready to get the fuck out of this house. 

Hans leaned down to whisper in her ear, “You party?”

“Depends on what you got,” she answered. 

Hans discreetly flashed her the baggie in his pocket and she gave him a nod. They were quickly out the door and heading back to his place. 

Her hands were on his belt as soon as Hans closed his bedroom door behind them. He reached into his pocket and took out the baggie of edibles. She opened her mouth, holding her tongue out slightly. Hans placed a single gummy bear on her tongue and then took one himself. 

She was kissing his neck then, and her hand was reaching down into his pants. Hans walked her backwards toward the bed, grabbing a condom up off his desk on the way. He just wanted to get inside her as fast as possible and hoped the edibles wouldn’t take too long to hit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to Molly, Liv, and Melissa for helping work through some of the wording in this chapter.
> 
> And sorry for the delay on this one. I had to rework a bit of the outline. But I’ve got that all figured out now so the next few updates shouldn’t take as long.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang goes to the outlet mall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Content warning: references to homophobia, struggles with sexual identity]

Anna pushed around the eggs on her plate as her and Kristoff ate. They had begun having their Saturday morning breakfast here on his couch instead of in the kitchen. Kristoff only had the one kitchen stool and Anna felt bad that he would always insist on her being the one to sit on it. So, the couch it was and therefore they both could sit. It also had the added benefit of allowing Anna the ability to snuggle up next to him and get a bit of his body heat on these cold mornings. And maybe steal a few quick kisses. 

She was a bit distracted this morning though. She couldn’t stop thinking about Hans and what had happened last night. The way he was acting when he got back from getting them refills. He had left happy and laughing but came back to them sad and sullen, with an almost broken look in his eyes. She had never seen him like that before. Hans had brushed off their questions and then quickly left the party with that girl. But something was wrong, Anna just knew it. 

She looked over at Kristoff. He seemed deep in thought too. 

“Are you thinking about Hans?”

Kristoff quickly looked at her, “ _What?_ Why?”

“Because of last night. How upset he was acting right before he left the party.”

“ _Right._ Right,” Kristoff put his plate down on the coffee table, “What do you think that was about?”

“I don’t know,” she tapped her fork against her plate, “But _something_ happened. I think one of us should try to talk to him today. Try to figure it out, try to help him. Don’t you think?”

They had thankfully made all their plans for meeting up today to go to the outlet mall before everything happened last night. 

Kristoff nodded, “Probably, yeah.”

“Ok,” she put her plate down on the coffee table and turned sideways on the couch to face him, “We’re going to need a plan.”

He tilted his head, “Why do we need a plan?”

“Because I think only one of us should try to talk to him. If we both try at the same time, I don’t know, he could feel teamed up on? Get defensive and then shut down? So, one of us needs to find a reason to separate from the group while the other one talks to him.”

Kristoff thought about that for a moment before agreeing with her, “Yeah, that makes sense.”

Anna was about to begin explaining her plan for how he would split off from them so she could talk to Hans, when Kristoff spoke again. 

“I can do it,” he said confidently, “I can talk to him.”

“Are-, are you sure?” Anna hadn’t expected him to offer that. 

“Yeah, you go off into some store that sells only girly things and that’ll leave the two of us alone. It’ll be believable. And then we’ll… talk,” he shrugged, “Guy talk.”

Anna looked at him, unsure. She had just assumed she would be the one to talk to Hans to find out what was wrong. Her friend was hurting and she was feeling this urge to be the one to have to fix it. Besides, Kristoff? Talking? 

“I got this,” he assured her. 

Kristoff was looking at her like it was important to him that she believe he could do this. Like it was important to him that she _trust him_ enough to do this. Maybe he was right, maybe ‘guy talk’ was what was needed here. 

“Ok,” she said. 

“Ok. And, hey,” Kristoff placed his hand over hers, “Maybe we totally misread things last night. Maybe he shows up this morning and he’s all fine and his normal self.”

“That’s true,” Anna nodded, “I just want to make sure that he’s ok.”

“I know,” Kristoff leaned in and kissed her on the forehead, “You’re a good friend.”

~

Later that morning, after returning to her dorm to shower and change, Anna was back in Kristoff’s apartment. She drummed her fingers nervously against her phone. 

“You texted him?” Kristoff asked from where he was standing in the kitchen, leaning back against the counter.

“Yeah,” Anna checked her phone again, “He hasn’t responded.”

Hans was late. And not responding. What if he didn’t show? They couldn’t just leave without him. Should they go over to his residence hall to try to find him?

A knock at the door made her jump. Kristoff quickly closed the distance to the door and opened it. It was Hans. He had a coffee in his hand and his sunglasses on. It reminded Anna of their first group session together. But this felt different. 

“Sorry I’m late,” he mumbled.

“It’s fine, no worries,” Kristoff said with a smile and a wave of his hand.

“Here are your books,” Anna said, picking them up off the coffee table and jogging over to Hans, “from last night.”

“Right,” is all Hans said as he took them from her.

She clasped her hands together in front of her and gave him a wide smile, “How are you?”

“Fine,” Hans said flatly, “We ready to go?”

“Yeah,” Kristoff answered, “my car is parked right out front.”

Hans nodded and started walking back out to the street.

Anna looked over at Kristoff and grimaced. 

“Yeah, I’ll talk to him,” Kristoff said, pulling on his jacket. 

{ ~ }

Hans sat low in his seat in the back of the car as they drove. Anna had the website for the outlet mall up on her phone and was reading off different facts about the place ( _over 200 stores!_ ). Kristoff was doing his best to sound interested as he drove, with _yeahs_ and _uh-huhs_. Hans was content to just sit quietly, looking at his phone. 

“Can we pull over at this rest stop?” Anna asked at one point.

Kristoff checked the GPS, “We’re nearly there.”

“I really have to pee,” she whispered, even though she was still speaking loud enough for everyone in the car to hear. 

“Ok, ok,” Kristoff pulled off into the parking lot of the rest stop. 

Anna opened her door once they were parked and began to climb out of the car, “Anybody need anything while I’m in there?”

“Nope,” Kristoff said.

Hans just shook his head. 

“Ok, I’ll be right back!” Anna closed her door and jogged off towards the rest stop. 

A silence settled in the car then. Hans watched the back of Kristoff’s head, wondering if he would do or say anything. But he just sat still, hands resting on the steering wheel. 

Hans thought back to the day they went sledding, a month ago now. When Anna had gone off into the dining hall to get the lunch trays Kristoff just stood there - not speaking a word to him, not even looking at him - until Anna returned. He was doing the same thing now, just sitting there in the front seat staring straight ahead out the windshield. As if Hans weren’t even in the car. 

It didn’t bother Hans then, so it shouldn’t bother him now. 

But it was probably what Kristoff wanted, right? For Hans to not even be there. 

Why did he fucking come with them today? Why hadn’t he seen Anna’s inclusion of him in these plans for what it was? She got overly excited in the moment last night and then was too nice to rescind the invitation. She didn’t really want him here. _They_ didn’t want him here. They were sleeping together - and maybe becoming more - and he was just some tag-a-long third wheel. 

He wished now that he had just spent the day alone in his room with his headphones on and his music turned all the way up. 

Hans slouched lower in his seat and scrolled through his phone. 

{ ~ }

Anna picked up three maps from a kiosk near the front of the entrance. She handed one each to Hans and Kristoff, but they just slipped them into their back pockets without even looking at them. She rolled her eyes. Anna had been here before and knew it was an easy place to get lost in. It was a huge outdoor mall, with long winding walkways that looped back around on themselves. 

It was a pretty place though. The storefronts were all designed to look like quaint little shops - even though they were all big name brands. There were street lamps and benches along the walkways. Flowerbeds, too. They were bare now, as it was still the tail end of winter, but she could tell they would be in full bloom come spring and summer. 

“I’m going to get another coffee,” Hans said gesturing over to a Starbucks, “You guys can go on ahead without me, I’ll catch up.”

“Don’t be silly, we’ll wait for you,” Anna said, giving him a wide smile. There was no way they were going to leave him alone when he was still so clearly upset about something. 

He nodded and walked off into the coffee shop. 

Once Hans was out of sight, Anna turned to Kristoff eagerly, “So, when I was in the bathroom, did you guys talk about the thing?”

“What?” he looked down at her, confused, “No. You were only gone for a few minutes.”

“Ok,” she nodded. He was right about that. “So what _did_ you guys talk about?”

Kristoff shrugged, “Nothing.”

Anna tensed, “You guys just sat in complete silence the _whole time_ I was gone?”

He searched her face and began to cringe, “...Yes?” 

“ _Kristoff_.”

“Ok, ok,” he scratched at the back of his neck, “I’m seeing now how that was a bad choice on my part.”

Anna chewed her lip as she looked off in the direction of the Starbucks, “I’ll talk to him. You can head off and I’ll think of something to tell him when he gets back.” 

“No, no, I’ll-,” Kristoff ran a hand through his hair, “I can do this.”

Anna looked back up at him, “Are you sure?”

“Yes,” he said, determined, “Let me do this. Please.”

There was a seriousness in Kristoff’s expression. He seemed like he really wanted to be the one to do this for some reason. 

When she first met him, Kristoff had come off as gruff and grumpy. A bit cold, a bit disinterested in others. But the more time Anna spent with him, the more she was beginning to see that underneath all that he really did have a big heart. 

She reached out and took his hand, giving it a squeeze, “Ok.”

{ ~ }

Hans hung back behind the two of them as they walked along, passing stores. 

“I’m going to go into this one,” Anna announced, “It just sells womens clothes though, so no need for you guys to join me,” she bounced slightly on the balls of her feet, “Guess you two get to have some guy time today.”

Kristoff nodded, clearly not that interested in the prospect. 

As soon as Anna disappeared into the store, Hans turned and began to walk away. With any luck Kristoff would just head off in the other direction without a word and they could all meet up again later. 

“So, where to?” he heard Kristoff ask from behind him. 

No such luck then. 

“You can go wherever,” Hans answered, making sure to have enough disinterest in his voice. 

He shrugged, “I don’t have stores I want to go to.”

Hans sighed. He really just wanted to be alone. Why was Kristoff following him anyway? Probably just worried that Anna would get mad at him if he ditched him. 

Well, if Kristoff wasn’t going to leave him alone voluntarily, then Hans would need to find a way to _make_ it happen. Maybe he could lose him a store. It would need to actually be a place where Kristoff would want to do some shopping though. He eyed each storefront that they passed. None of these nice name brand stores were going to work. Zero chance that Kristoff ever shopped at places like J. Crew or Brooks Brothers. 

But then Hans spotted it - Under Armor. Perfect. Maybe Kristoff would get distracted by some sports jerseys or some shit and Hans could easily slip away. 

Hans dropped his half empty coffee into the nearest garbage can and headed in, Kristoff close behind him. 

However, once they were inside, Hans realized that his plan was not going to work. Wherever he went in the store, Kristoff trailed behind like some giant blond shadow. 

Hans moved slowly down one aisle of clothes. Maybe he could bore the guy into leaving him alone. He picked up a shirt and looked at it. He should actually buy some stuff here, he thought. The weather was going to be getting warmer soon and he’d be doing more running outside, so he could use some new workout clothes. 

Kristoff turned over a tag on a random item, “Eesh, I thought things at outlet malls were supposed to be cheaper than normal.”

“It is cheaper than normal,” Hans said flatly. 

He shook his head, “How does anyone afford this shit?”

Hans blinked down at the shirt he was holding. He _couldn’t_ afford it, of course. Not on his own. Anything he bought here would need to go on the credit card that his dad paid the bill for. Hans hung the shirt back up on the rack and rubbed his forehead. Last fucking thing he wanted to think about today. He turned and headed for the exit. 

“Aren’t you getting anything?” Kristoff asked, following him. 

“No,” he said, walking out through the front door of the store and not holding it open behind him for Kristoff. 

“Was it what I said? I’m sorry I-,”

“It wasn’t,” he tried to add some extra sharpness to his tone. 

But Kristoff just kept at it. “Because I’m sorry, I didn’t mean anything by it.”

Hans didn’t want to talk. He didn’t want to hang out. He didn’t want to have _guy time_. He just wanted to be left alone. Wasn’t he making that clear? What else could he do to make it _more_ obvious? He hated it when people couldn’t just take a fucking hint. Forced him to be the asshole. 

Hans stopped and turned on his heels. It seemed to take Kristoff by surprise as he had to skid to a stop to avoid running into him. 

“Stop apologizing to me,” he spat out, “it’s really fucking annoying.”

Kristoff blinked, “What?”

Hans took a deep breath and narrowed his eyes, “You can drop the act, ok? Anna isn’t here right now, so you don’t have to keep pretending not to hate me.”

“ _Hate_ you?” he frowned. 

Hans turned and kept walking. Hopefully those words had been harsh enough. Hopefully he had put enough venom in his tone. 

“Hey,” Kristoff called out and Hans could hear his footsteps hurrying to catch up to him. 

_Fucking hell._ Hans hunched his shoulders and walked faster. 

“Hold up, will ya?” Kristoff was walking even with him now, “Why do you think I hate you?”

Apparently it hadn’t been enough. He needed to come up with something else. Something harsher. Something that could brush Kristoff back enough that he would actually leave him _the fuck_ alone. Something hurtful. Something cutting.

_I had her first._

Hans let out a deep breath. He wasn’t going to say that. Obviously. That would be too far. And it would mean breaking his promise to Anna. 

“Can you just wait?”

Hans felt Kristoff’s hand on his arm. He stopped walking to turn around and snatch his arm away, giving Kristoff a harsh glare. 

“Look, I almost got into a _fight_ for you last night,” Kristoff seemed nearly angry now, “so where is all this ‘hate you’ bullshit coming from?”

“Was that for me? Or was it to impress the girl you’re fucking?”

He saw Kristoff’s jaw clench. “Why are you doing this?”

Hans crosses his arms, “Doing what?” He knew he was acting like a brat, but he didn’t care. 

Kristoff watched him for a moment, his expression slowly softening, “What happened last night? At the party, when you went to go get us refills.” 

Hans felt a pit in his stomach. He shook his head, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

What the fuck else was Hans supposed to say? ‘Hey, random straight dude that I barely know, let me open up to you about my homophobic teammates.’ Fat fucking chance. Why wouldn’t Kristoff back the fuck off? Why did he even _care?_

He took a step closer to Hans, “Why won’t you just talk to me?”

“Why won’t you just leave me alone?” 

Kristoff lifted his arms slightly only to drop them back down to his sides, exasperated, “Because if you actually wanted to be left alone today, then you wouldn’t have come here with us.”

Hans didn’t have an answer for that. 

“Besides,” Kristoff continued, “leaving you alone isn’t an option. There’s no way I’m letting _both_ of you out of my sight at the same time,” the corner of his mouth twitched up, “Because if I do then lord knows how long it’ll take to round you both back up again. And then there’s no chance of me getting home on time.”

Hans huffed and looked away. Now he was making jokes. There really was no getting rid of him at this point, he realized. 

“I really don’t want to talk,” Hans said finally, “About... anything.”

Kristoff shrugged, “That’s ok. Talking is overrated. But, just, stopping trying to run away from me, ok?”

“Fine,” Hans said and slowly began walking. 

Kristoff walked beside him as they went around the largest outer loop of the complex, their steps eventually falling into rhythm with each other.

As they walked, Hans rolled the events of last night over and over again in his head. 

It wasn’t even the words that his teammates had said that was bothering him the most, nor how the words got worse and worse the longer he stood there in the kitchen filling up the cups. It wasn’t the first time those guys had said shit like that to him and Hans had heard worse things in his life anyway. And it wasn’t even that they were his _teammates_ , and how that was meant to _mean_ something. 

The thing that was bothering him the most was that he even cared at all. That he allowed himself to actually care what those guys thought of him. He was supposed to be smarter than that. Supposed to be stronger than that. 

Because what did caring actually lead to? This. This stupid, swirling pit in his stomach that he couldn’t actually do anything with. 

Kristoff was being kind to him today, god knows why, but Hans couldn’t talk to him about this shit. 

He couldn’t talk to anybody about it. Not his other teammates, who all thought O’Malley, Anderson, and Sullivan were just the _coolest_. Not coach either, that was for sure. Hans knew exactly what would happen there, if he went and _tattled_ on them to coach. They’d just get some slap on the wrist and then guess what? Things would become even worse for him. 

Hans couldn’t talk to all those people down at the Q Center in the student union, either. He was stupid enough to try that early on his freshman year. All their looks of pity and their talk about community and everybody having a journey. There was no fucking _community_ for him there. 

So then what was the point in caring? He wasn’t going to change. They weren’t going to change. Best just to not care. 

Hans tried to distract himself. He looked at the window displays as they walked and he watched the other people shopping - families and couples and groups of friends. They passed by a small playground at one point and then an outdoor seating area where people were eating lunch. 

He didn’t look over at Kristoff at all, but he could see him there in the corner of his peripheral vision. Silently walking next to him with his hands in his pockets, honoring Hans’s wish to not talk. 

Slowly, the tension began to ease out of his muscles and his shoulders relaxed. 

Hans decided he was done with walking and headed over to one of the benches to sit. Kristoff followed, sitting down at the opposite end, but still not forcing a conversation. 

“Did Anna put you up to it?” Hans asked eventually, looking out at the crowds of people instead of over at Kristoff, “The whole trying to talk to me and keep me company thing.”

“ _No_ ,” he said a bit defensively, “Well, I mean, it _was_ her idea. She was worried about you. But, I wanted to.”

Hans looked down at his feet. Anna had been worried about him. 

“You were right,” he mumbled, “Something happened when I went to go get the refills.”

“Ok,” Kristoff said gently, “You don’t have to tell me what it was.”

“Good. Because I’m not going to,” he quickly responded, but then cringed. That came out harsher than he meant for it to. Fuck, why did he always have to be a such prick even when someone was trying to be nice to him? 

“You don’t really think I hate you, do you?” Kristoff asked after some silence. There was a twinge of hurt in his voice and it made Hans feel guilty. 

“No. I guess not,” Hans answered, still not looking at him, “But you do act annoyed by me sometimes.”

“I only act annoyed by you when you’re acting annoying.”

Hans smiled down at his feet and then finally looked over at Kristoff, “I never said thank you. You know, for helping me last night with that guy that wanted to beat me up.”

Kristoff gave him a small smile back, “That’s what friends do, right? They have each other’s backs.”

 _Friends._ The same nice sentiment that Anna had offered him. What did the word mean to them, he wondered. 

“Why do you even want to be friends with me?” Hans hoped he didn’t sound as pathetic as he felt asking that question. 

Kristoff took a deep breath and leaned further against the back of the bench. He looked up at the sky and Hans watched his profile. He actually seemed to be putting some thought into his answer. 

“I’m not great at… people. I had always just thought that it was fine, that _I_ was fine, you know, no big deal. And I know I gave you a hard time, in the beginning. But… these last couple of couple of weeks, hanging out with you guys, it’s been fun. And I-,” he sighed and ran a hand through his hair, “I know I’m rambling and probably don’t make any sense. And I get that to someone like you, or to someone like Anna, it would probably sound silly. You guys have a ton of friends so it probably doesn’t-, but I-,” he looked down at his feet, “It’s just been nice. Having people to spend time with.”

Hans let all of the words sink in. _A ton of friends._ If only Kristoff knew. But he wasn’t going to correct him, of course. Because despite how completely struck he was by Kristoff’s honesty, Hans knew he was completely unable to match it. 

“Ok,” was all he managed to say in response. 

And then they were back to silence. 

“Well,” Kristoff said after some time, slapping his knee, “I’m starving. Let’s go find Anna, get some lunch, and then head home.”

“You’re not going to do any shopping?” Hans asked as they stood up. 

Kristoff shook his head, “Nah, I don’t need any new clothes.”

Hans smiled at him, “Agree to disagree on that.”

He hoped it was a common enough topic of teasing between them already that Kristoff would see it for what it was - a _thank you_ , an _I’m sorry_. 

Luckily it worked and Kristoff laughed, giving Hans a pat on the shoulder. 

“Do you remember the way back to that store she was in?” Kristoff asked they began to walk

“Uh,” Hans looked around. Everything in this place looked the same. “No. Shit.”

“Oh wait, we got-,” Kristoff reached into his back pocket and pulled out the map that Anna had given them. 

“Right,” Hans did the same, “Thank you, Anna.”

{ ~ }

The whole time she shopped Anna’s fingers twitched to grab her phone. She wanted to text Kristoff to check in, see what was happening and how it was going. See if everything was ok now. 

Anna hated seeing Hans act so sad and quiet. It just wasn’t like him. He would normally be grinning and joking with them. And he would always get this gleam in his eyes when he was teasing her or Kristoff. And his smile was...

She chewed at her lip. 

That night was just a one time thing, Anna reminded herself. That’s all Hans thought of it and now they were just friends. For the best. 

Anna put it out of her mind as she inspected the dress she was currently trying on. It had a halter top and the skirt of it flared out. Would be perfect for spring. The big, three panel mirror out in the front area of the changing room would give her a better look than the one here in the stall, she decided, so she began to walk out there. 

When she got there she was surprised to see both Kristoff and Hans sitting on that small couch changing rooms always had. They both smiled at her and stood as soon as she appeared. That was a good sign, right?

“Sorry,” she said, walking towards them, “I didn’t know you guys were out here. I hope you weren’t waiting long.”

“Nah,” Kristoff said with a wave of his hand, “we only just got here.”

“Well,” she gestured down to her dress, “since you guys _are_ here, what do you think?”

Anna watched Kristoff as he looked at her. There was a sparkle in his eyes that made her cheeks feel warm. But it was Hans that spoke first. 

“Makes your tits look good,” he said with a smirk. 

“ _Jesus_ , Hans,” Kristoff scolded him while giving him a quick elbow in the side. 

“What? It does,” he laughed, jumping out of the way of the jab.

Kristoff shook his head and turned back to her, “Anna, ignore him, you look… beautiful.”

“It’s ok,” she laughed, “all feedback is helpful.”

“See? I’m _helpful_ ,” Hans grinned at Kristoff who just rolled his eyes. 

Hans was joking around again and his easy smile was back. He was himself again. Anna felt warmth in her chest. Whatever Kristoff had done, had worked. 

“We were going to get some lunch now if you wanted,” Kristoff said.

“Perfect. This was the last thing I was going to try on,” she told them, “So, let me just get dressed again, go check out, and I’ll meet you guys outside?”

“Sounds good,” Hans said. 

Anna mouthed a silent ‘Thank you’ to Kristoff when Hans started to walk away. He gave her a small nod before following Hans to the front of the store. 

~

Once they got their food, they found a table in the food court. Kristoff and Hans sat on one side while Anna and all her shopping bags sat on the other. 

Kristoff got the cheese fries while Hans just got the regular fries. Hans explained to Kristoff why the cheese on the cheese fries was gross. Kristoff countered that Hans had gotten a cheeseburger, so what was the difference? Hans rolled his eyes as he explained how the cheese on the cheeseburgers was very much different from the cheese on the cheese fries. 

Anna smiled as she watched the exchange. She slowly lifted her phone up over the edge of the table and took a quick picture. But after slipping her phone back in her purse and looking up, Anna found both of them staring at her. 

_Shit._ She was caught. 

But it was funny, Anna thought, how two very different faces could be looking at her with the exact same expression. 

“What?” she asked innocently. 

“Did you just take a picture of us?” Hans asked. 

“...Maybe.” 

Kristoff shook his head, “You really thought you could do that and we wouldn’t catch you?”

“You’ve never caught me before,” Anna said casually as she picked up her burger. 

“Before?” Kristoff arched an eyebrow at her, “How many times before?”

Anna just shrugged and took a big bite of her burger. 

Hans and Kristoff exchanged a look before they both took out their phones and started snapping pictures of her. 

“Soop! Om eat-eeng!” Anna tried to yell around a full mouth of food as she quickly covered her face to hide. But the guys just laughed as she tossed balled up napkins at them. 

{ ~ }

_Why do you even want to be friends with me?_

Hans’s words rattled around in Kristoff’s head the whole drive back to campus. 

Everything he said to Hans in his answer was true. He had meant every word of it. And it would all still be true even if Kristoff didn’t know what he now knew. What he had learned about Hans last night. The girl he had gone home with. That guy he was with two week earlier at the delta party. 

Kristoff had known other people in his life who weren’t straight, of course. But he’d never known anyone who was… well, definitely never known a _guy_ who was… 

His hands tightened on the steering wheel and he chanced a quick glance in the rearview mirror back at Hans. 

Maybe if they became good friends - real, proper friends. The kind of friends who could trust each other with things. Maybe the words would come to him then. Words that Kristoff had barely allowed himself to ever even think, let alone say out loud. 

_How did you know?_

_How were you sure?_

_Like actually, truly, totally **sure**?_

_Is it normal to feel this terrified?_

_Does that terror mean that it's true? Or that it's not true?_

_Can you help me understand?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The “Jesus Hans” in this chapter is dedicated to Liv, Queen of Jesus Anna.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hans needs a new highlighter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot to include this in my last update, but the lovely and talented Gabi made an _amazing_ piece of fanart for Room For You (for which I am so so grateful!) It’s hansoff, so it’s a bit of a preview of things to come:  
> https://gabiwnomagic.tumblr.com/post/620870572283396096/art-request-something-gay

“What do you think about this one?” Anna asked, holding out her arms. 

“It’s fine,” Ryder said, not looking up from his phone. He was sitting up on her bed waiting for her to finish getting ready so they could head out for their normal Saturday night with the rest of their friends from the dorm. 

She dropped her arms to her sides. “You always say that. How do you know if it looks fine if you don’t actually look?”

“I don’t need to look. If it looked fine on you the last time you wore it then it looks fine on you now.”

“Ah-ha,” Anna pointed at him, “See, that’s how I know you’re not paying attention. I haven’t worn this before, I only just bought this today.”

“ _Today?_ You went shopping _today_?”

“Yeah.”

“Where?”

“The outlet mall.”

Ryder looked up from his phone. “Isn’t that place like an hour and a half away? How’d you get there without a car?”

Anna shrugged. “Kristoff drove.”

He arched an eyebrow at her. “Kristoff? Your pizza man? Big guy, bad at flip cup? Him?”

“Yes. _Him._ Why?”

“Nothing, just,” Ryder looked back down at his phone, “that’s been going on for a few weeks now, huh?”

Anna sighed, knowing where this was going. “Aaaand?”

Ryder was smirking now. “And he’s driving you an hour and a half away just so you can go shopping.” 

She crossed her arms. “Your point?”

“Sounds like it’s getting serious.”

“It’s not,” She uncrossed her arms and turned back around to look in the mirror. 

“Suuuuure,” Ryder responded with a small laugh.

“It’s _not_ ,” Anna said more forcefully, but she could still see him laughing to himself in the reflection.

It _wasn’t_. 

{ ~ }

As Kristoff sorted through the files in Professor Oaken’s office, he did his best to ignore the random buzzing of his phone in his pocket. Part of him wanted to take out the phone to look at it, but he was in the middle of his work-study hours. And, well, work-study was _work_. You can’t just be on your phone at work. 

The phone was still for a while, so he figured they were done with whatever they were chatting about. But, suddenly, a series of buzzes came in quick succession. Kristoff leaned his elbow against the top of the filing cabinet and pitched the bridge of his nose, but couldn’t help but smile. 

He glanced around. There was nobody else here so he could probably get away with a quick look. He pulled out his phone and unlocked it. Just as he had expected, all the messages were from Anna and Hans in their group text. He quickly skimmed over them - far too many for him to actually read each one. It was only Monday, but the two of them were already making plans for what the three of them would be doing that Friday night. 

“Hello Kristoff!” 

He jumped at the sound of Professor Oaken’s booming voice and quickly shoved the phone back in his pocket. “Hi professor.”

“How are you, lad?”

“I’m good,” Kristoff walked toward him, “I was just finishing up the filing. I sorted the mail. Photocopies are done for all your afternoon classes. Oh, and I also graded the tests for that 200-level class. They’re stacked up over there on your desk for you to review.” 

“You’ve done all that already? Just this morning?”

“Yep.”

The professor gave an impressed nod and headed over to his desk. 

Kristoff always felt good when he could leave a good impression like that. The closer he got to graduation, the closer he got to needing to apply to jobs. _Real_ jobs. Professor Oaken was the head of the computer engineering department, and so a letter of recommendation from him would go a long way. 

“Oh, Kristoff,” the professor said as he was about to walk away, “My wife made another carrot cake last night. She put aside a slice for you, as always.” He held out a small tupperware and a fork. 

Kristoff smiled as he walked over to take it. “Tell her I say thank you. As always.”

“Go on, you can eat it now,” Professor Oaken said, motioning over to the chairs in his office as he finished unpacking his bag. 

“But I’m not done with my work-study hours for another,” he checked the time on his phone, “45 minutes.”

He waved his hand dismissively, “You’ve done enough already today. Eat, eat.”

“Ok,” Kristoff drummed his fingers on the top of the tupperware, “Maybe while I eat, I was hoping, well, I know you don’t have office hours today, but I was hoping you might have some time to go over some questions I have on that most recent assignment.”

Professor Oaken nodded, “Of course, of course.”

{ ~ }

Hans narrowed his eyes as he carefully applied tape to the end of his lacrosse stick. He was sitting on a bench in the locker room and a few of the other guys were beginning to stream in. It was their normal Tuesday morning practice and he’d gotten there early so he could get this done beforehand. 

He felt someone sit down on the bench next to him. “Hey Hans! Howya doin’?”

Hans glanced over to see that it was Ryder, Anna’s friend. “Good,” he responded and returned to taping his stick. 

“Is that a new stick?” Ryder asked leaning in to inspect it. 

“Yep.”

“I just got a new one too,” Hans could see him hold it up in his peripheral vision, “New season, new stick, right?”

“Yep,” Hans repeated. 

Why Ryder decided to get a new stick was beyond him. The guy was the backup goalie and would barely be getting any game time this year. 

Ryder began to slowly wave his stick back forth in front of him, making _WOOOSSHH_ and _WOOOAAAAOOO_ sounds. 

Hans stopped his taping and stared at him with an eyebrow raised. 

“Like a lightsaber,” Ryder said as if the _‘what’_ he was doing was the question instead of the _‘why’_ he was doing it. 

“Right,” Hans said dryly before returning his attention to his stick.

Ryder finally left him alone then. 

~

Hans sat with one leg tucked under him and his head in his hand as he read through his textbook, highlighting lines that seemed important. He sighed. He really hated studying in the library. But his suitemates were being obnoxiously loud that day. None of them had classes on Wednesday afternoons, so they would all just hang out in the common area of their suite playing video games, blasting loud music, and smoking pot. Even being in his room with the door closed and his headphones on hadn’t been enough to drown them out. So, studying in the fucking library it was. Hans couldn’t wait until the day he was finally able to live alone. 

“Hi Hans!”

He was startled from his thoughts and looked up to see Anna standing next to his table, smiling at him. The first thing he noticed was that she was wearing a crop top. Her jeans were those high waisted type of jeans, so not that much skin was showing. But still. Crop top. 

“Hey Anna,” he said, keeping his eyes on her face, “What’s up?”

“Well, I came here to do some studying and then I saw you over here and was like, ‘I know him’, so I figured I’d come over and we’d study together. I know _I_ always studying better when I have other people around. So, is that ok, if I sit with you?”

The logic of why having other people around would make studying easier was a bit lost on him, but he obviously wasn’t going to say no to her. 

“Yeah, of course.” 

“Great.” Anna sat down across from him and began to unpack her books. He watched her for a moment before returning his attention to his own textbook. 

They worked in silence for a while, Anna scribbling away at something while he continued to read through this chapter. 

Hans went to highlight one line but no color came out. He ran the highlighter back and forth across the page a few times to no avail. He shook it a bit and then tried again. Nope, completely dry. Hans started to dig through his bag. “Shit,” he mumbled. 

Anna looked up from her work and watched what he was doing. “Everything ok?”

“Yeah,” he dropped his bag back down on the ground, “It’s just, my highlighter ran out of ink. Well,” he looked down at it, “not _ink_. Pens run out of ink. It ran out of whatever it is highlighters run out of and I don’t have another one.”

Anna folded her hands in front of her and smiled at him. “I could give you one. I don’t have any on me but I have a hundred back in my room.” 

Hans blinked, “A hundred?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you mean that you have _a lot_ of highlighters or do you mean that you, like, literally have one hundred highlighters?”

“I literally have one hundred highlighters,” she confirmed with no further explanation, but he knew there was a story there. 

“Anna Bell…” he said slowly. 

“Yes?” 

“Why. In the world. Do you have one _hundred_ highlighters?”

She let out an exaggerated sigh. “It’s not like I _meant_ to buy that many.”

Hans leaned his elbow on the table and put his chin in his hand. “Ok. I have to hear the story of how you _accidentally_ bought one hundred highlighters.” 

Anna rolled her eyes. “It’s not that dramatic of a story. I was shopping online and I thought I was buying _ten_ highlighters but it was actually ten _packs_ of ten. And, you know, ten times ten equals one hundred. So, therefore, I have one hundred highlighters.”

“Did you do that math all on your own? Or did you need Kristoff to help you?”

“Fuck off,” she kicked at him under the table and tried to give him a scowl, but Hans could see the faintest hint of a smile tugging at her lips. 

“How come the price didn’t tip you off? I assume there is a bit of a difference between the cost of ten and the cost of one hundred.”

Anna shrugged, “I don’t look at the price when I’m shopping online.”

Hans rolled his eyes, “Because you’re not really paying for it?”

“Do _you_ really pay for all _your_ shit?” she countered. 

Well. She had him there. And, judging by the smug look on her face, she knew it. 

“Come on,” Anna closed her book, “I have them back in my room. We can go there now and I’ll give you one.”

Hans closed his book as well and began to put it back in his bag. “You have literally a hundred. I’m not taking one, I’m taking a whole handful.”

~

Anna led the way up the stairs of Castle Hall and then down the hallway to her room. Hans casually looked up and down the hallway as she unlocked her door. He’d been here before, obviously. Just never in the daylight. 

He followed her into her room and the door closed behind them. Hans remembered that from his time in the dorms last year. Some kind of fire safety thing or some shit. You’d have to put something heavy down as a door stop otherwise they’d just slam right closed the second you let go of them. 

Hans wandered into the middle of the room looking around as Anna began to dig through her desk drawers. Anna’s side of the room was a bit messier than her roommate’s, bed unmade and clothes strewn about. She had lots of pictures tapped up around her desk and bed. Hans was standing too far away to get a good look at any of them, but he assumed they were pictures of her and friends from high school or with her friends here at school. 

His eyes landed on the string lights that were hung up around her bed. In the afternoon light it was an unimpressive sight. Nothing more than a crinkled black line stretched across the white concrete wall, held up by random pieces of tape. Much different from that night when he had first seen them. The glow they cast across her skin. The way they sparkled in her eyes. 

“Hans?”

He quickly looked back at her. Anna had a questioning expression on her face. 

He cleared his throat, “Yeah?”

She held up a handful of highlighters. 

“Right, thanks,” he said as he began to walk towards her. It was then that Hans saw a leatherbound book sitting on her desk. He reached over and picked it up. “What’s this?”

Anna’s eyes widened, “Don’t open that!”

She went to snatch it away from him but he pulled it back. “What is it?”

“ _Nothing_ ,” she said in a tone that made it clear that it was definitely not nothing. 

It clicked in his head then. “Wait, is this that sketchbook thing? Your art?”

“Hans!” she reached for it but he jumped back a few steps and tossed his bag to the ground. 

He laughed, “What’s the matter? I just want a peek.” 

Obviously he wasn’t going to open it up and look at anything if she didn’t want him too. But he couldn’t help himself from teasing her, it was just too much fun. 

She tried to reach for it again but he was too quick. He darted into the middle of the room as she followed and then he spun and doubled back, basically causing her to chase him in a big circle. 

“Oh my _god_ , I hate you so much,” she whined, but there was a hint of laugher in her voice that let him know that he was ok to continue. 

Hans took a couple of quick steps backwards as she rushed forward at him, the back of his legs making contact with her desk. Without anywhere further to retreat to, Hans held the sketchbook as high as he could over his head. 

She was on him then, reaching up and jumping to try to snatch it. 

“Jump all you want,” he laughed, “you’re never going to reach it.”

Anna seemed to give up then, dropping her head forward and pressing the top of it into the center of his chest while letting out a defeated groan. Her hands went to his sides, gathering up the fabric of his shirt. She looked back up at him and gave his body a playful shake, “Why are you such an asshole sometimes?”

“Because you like it,” he responded without thinking. 

Her eyes widened slightly and her bottom lip caught between her teeth. 

Hans realized then just how close Anna was to him. Her whole body was pressed against his and her hands clutched at his shirt. Her chin was resting against his chest as she looked up at him and he wondered if she could hear how hard his heart had begun to pound. 

He slowly lowered his arms and placed the sketchbook down gently on the desk. “I wasn’t really going to look in it,” he said softly, “I was just teasing.”

“I know.” Anna nodded. 

Hans thought she might move away from him then, but she didn’t. Instead she continued to look up at him as a heavy silence hung around them. Her aqua eyes were watching him intently as a light blush formed under those freckles. 

He let his arms hang loosely down at his sides. _God_ he wanted to touch her so badly. But he couldn’t just _do_ that, right?

They had never talked about that night _since_ that night. It was just a thing that had happened once and now they were friends. They had also never been alone since that night. There were times that it was just the two of them, of course. Walking alone or, like just now, sitting alone together in the library. But never truly alone like this. Just the two of them, in private, behind a closed door. 

“Anna, I-,”

But then her lips were pressing against his. He was stunned for a moment before kissing her back, hungry and wanting. Hans allowed himself to touch her, one hand cupping her face while the other pressed into the small of her back. Anna’s hands went up to reach behind his neck. 

He turned her around pressing her back against the desk and slowly moved a hand up under her shirt, giving her the chance to bat him away if she wanted. He brushed his thumb across the fabric of her bra and could feel her nipple harden underneath. 

Anna arched into his touch and nipped at his bottom lip. He took it as an invitation and reached behind her to unhooked her bra with a quick snap of his fingers. Hans brought his hand back around to her front and slipped it up under her bra, rolling her nipple between his fingers. 

“ _Mhhmm_ ,” Anna moaned before deepening the kiss and rolling her hips into his. Hans hissed at the contact, already hard. 

It was a dizzying series of movements after that and there wasn’t enough blood going to his brain anymore for Hans to know if this was even a good idea or not. Anna's hands were on his belt and his were at the zipper of her jeans. They fumbled blindly, trying to get their clothes out of the way as quickly as possible but not wanting to break the contact of their kissing. 

Anna helped to push her jeans down over the swell of her hips before slipping a hand down the front of Hans’s pants. His hips bucked forward at the feeling of her hand wrapping around his cock and he pressed his fingers below the soft patch of auburn hair between her legs. He moaned Anna’s name against her mouth when he felt how wet she already was. 

Hans briefly pulled back from kissing to look down. Anna’s dark jeans and panties were pushed down to just above her knees and her shirt and bra were pushed up over her breasts. In between was nothing but perfect, creamy, freckled skin. Anna’s skin. 

He pressed his forehead against hers as he continued to run his fingers across her slick folds and her hand worked up and down his cock. “Anna,” he panted, “What do you-, I need you to tell me what you want.”

“This, now,” she said, her breath ragged, before kissing him again.

And, _oh god_ , he wanted this too. So badly that he didn’t even care that that door only closed on its own instead of locking. 

“Condoms,” Anna mumbled between kisses, “in my dresser.”

Hans looked over. Her dresser was tucked under her lofted bed on the opposite side of the room. The idea of stepping away from her body for even a moment felt impossible. 

“I got it,” he said before kissing her again and digging his wallet out of his back pocket. Anna smirked when she saw him pull a condom out of it. Hans gave her one more kiss before grabbing her by the hips and turning her around. 

Anna braced her hands against the edge of her desk and she spread her legs as wide as the bunched up jeans around her knees would allow her to. Hans reached a hand down in between her legs, running his fingers along that sweet warmth once more while he rolled the condom on. He had to push his own pants further down to get himself in the right position and lined up behind her. 

“ _Shiiit_ , Hans,” she moaned out as he pressed into her. 

He let out his own undignified sound as her tightness enveloped him. Hans looked down as he began to thrust into her. Anna had the most amazing ass and hips. Perfectly round and full and plenty to grab hold of as he fucked her. 

But he needed to be closer to her. He gathered up her hair, sweeping it over one shoulder, and then bent forward to kiss at her exposed neck and shoulder. The softness of her skin and the floral scent of her shampoo filled his senses. 

“Do the hair thing,” he heard her mumble. 

“Huh?” She wanted him to move her hair again? He was struggling to think clearly. 

“Like last time.”

 _Last time._ Han remembered then, how he had pulled her hair while she rode him. She had really liked that, huh? So much so that she wanted it again. 

Hans dug his fingers deeper into the flesh of her hips and quickened his pace. 

How many times had she thought about it? Thought about that night? Thought about him pulling her hair while she fucked him? Had Anna been wanting this again as badly as he had been? Had Anna touched herself while she thought about it the same way that he had? 

He leaned in closer, putting his mouth right next to her ear, “You want me to pull your hair?”

Anna nodded. 

Hans brought a hand up into her hair, threading his fingers through the loose strands. But he left his hand open and hovering near her scalp.

“I want to hear you say it.”

She huffed out a laugh but leaned her head back into his palm. 

“You need to say it, Anna,” he hummed in the best teasing tone he could manage, but he could hear that his voice was shaky with pleasure. 

“Pull my hair,” she breathed out. 

Hans tightened his hand into a fist, but didn’t pull. He nipped at her earlobe as he moved his other hand around to the front of her body and slipped it between her legs. He ran his fingers in circles over her clit, earning him some more moans from her. 

“I want to hear you beg.”

He heard her fingernails scrape against the wood of the desk. 

“Please. I want-, _uh!_ ,” Anna’s breath was hitching with each his of thrusts, “I need it, ah, _please Hans_ , please, I-,”

Hans pulled hard then, bringing her head back and to the side, giving him even more access to her neck. 

“You like that?” he growled in her ear. 

“Yes, Hans, _yes_.” Anna arched her back and rocked against him as he fucked her. 

He was completely lost in her. Her tightness and warmth. The way his name sounded as she moaned it out over and over again. 

Hans squeezed his eyes closed, desperately trying to hold off his mounting orgasm. He moved his fingers in faster circles over her clit and fucked her harder, his hips making a slapping sound against her ass with each thrust. 

“Fuck, _Anna_ , please tell me you’re close. _Please Anna._ ”

“ _Hans_ , oh, fu- _uh!_ ”

He felt her clenching around him then and he could feel her legs shaking. Hans removed his hand from her center and wrapped his arm low around her waist, holding her up so she didn’t fall. Her whole body writhed against him and he slowed down his pace to allow her ride out the waves of her orgasm. 

Once he felt her body relaxing he increased his pace, chasing his own release. He buried his face in her neck and came with a stuttering moan of her name. 

Hans slowly stopped the movement of his hips and released his hold on Anna’s hair. She released her grip on the edge of the desk and stood up straight, leaning her weight back into him. He snaked his other arm around her waist and pulled her flush against his body. Hans closed his eyes and laid the side of his face against the back of her head. 

Their breathing began to steady and slow down, eventually falling into rhythm with each other. He allowed himself a few more seconds to savor the feeling of being inside her, and of her body being against his, before slowly stepping away. 

Anna pulled her jeans up and took a few steps away from him and they began to put themselves back together in silence. 

Once Hans had taken care of the condom and gotten all of his clothes back in order he turned and leaned back on the edge of her desk. Anna was standing in the middle of the room, looking down at the floor and chewing on her thumb nail. 

It had all happened so fast, barely any time to think. She was thinking about it now though, and so was he. They were going to need to talk about this. 

“Hey,” he said quietly, and she finally looked up at him. “Come here?” he asked gently. 

Anna walked towards him, coming to stand between his knees. Hans placed his hands on her hips and leaned his forehead against hers. 

“That was...”

“Unexpected?” Anna offered

Hans pulled his head back to look at her, “I was going to say really fucking hot. But unexpected works too.” 

Anna smiled but then looked down. “Look, I know I initiated that just now. And I know you had said you wanted last time to just be a one time thing. So, I’m sorry that-,”

“Hey, hey, no” Hans gave her hips a squeeze and she looked back up at him, “Don’t say-, we _both_ said ‘one time’ last time. But that just now was… amazing, right?”

“ _Yeah_.” 

“So, one time, two times,” he rubbed his thumbs back and forth across the fabric of her jeans, “maybe more times?”

“Yeah. Yeah maybe.” Anna nodded, but Hans could tell there was still a lot on her mind. She placed her hands on his shoulders. “It’s just… more complicated now.”

It was. That first time, she was just the hot girl from one of his classes. But now? Now she was Anna. 

They were friends. Hans couldn’t say that about any of the other people he slept with, even the ones that he slept with a bit more regularly. He preferred just flirting, fucking, maybe some conversation afterwards if they weren’t unbearably annoying, and then being gone. No hanging out, no sleeping over. No feelings. 

Not to mention that _other_ complication. The one that had probably half a foot and god knows how many pounds on him. The one with a fist the size of his face. And, worst of all, the one that had been really fucking nice to him - even when he didn’t have to be - only a few days earlier. 

Hans grimaced. Why did he always have to think with his dick? 

“I-, I don’t want to get in the middle of anything,” Hans said, truly meaning it, “If you two are becoming something serious, I don’t want to cause any problems.”

Anna shook her head, “It’s not, we’re not serious.”

“No?”

“No. We talked about it. We’re just,” she shrugged, “keeping it casual. No commitments, not exclusive. Free to see other people.”

Hans thought on that for a moment. “So, it’s just sex then? Between you two?”

“Yeah,” she said, but there was something unsure in her voice, “Well, we’re friends. So it’s not _just_ just sex.”

“Like, you and me are friends?”

“Yeah,” she sounded more sure this time, “Exactly.”

“Ok.” 

Ok. This was ok then. If Kristoff had agreed that it was ok for them to sleep with other people then he couldn’t actually get mad about her doing just that. If that’s what _he_ said he wanted then presumably he was doing the same thing. So, Anna wasn’t doing anything wrong.

Hans chewed at his lip. But was _he_ doing something wrong? Kristoff said that he wanted to be friends. But, well, they were _all_ friends, all three of them, right? And Hans was friends with Anna before he was friends with Kristoff. And it really _was_ just sex. And technically Anna had had sex with _him_ before she ever had sex with Kristoff, so it wasn’t like Hans was stepping in new to something. And it wasn’t like he was sleeping with a friend’s _girlfriend_. 

Hans wasn’t sure if these rationalizations were actually making sense or if he was still just thinking with his dick. 

“I, um,” Anna interrupted him from his thoughts, “I still think it’s best that he… not know. Because, like, I am _completely_ fine with him sleeping with other girls. Ok? But that doesn’t mean that I would want to _know_ about it, you know? And I don’t want things to be, you know, awkward with the three of us.”

“Don’t worry.” Hans brought a hand up to his mouth and did a zipper gesture across his lips. “But, if it’s all too much, keeping it secret, you just let me know, ok? I’ll leave it up to you if this is something we do again.”

“Ok,” Anna gave him a small smile, “I did really enjoy it.”

“I could tell,” he smiled back at her and pulled her closer. “ _Please, please_ ,” he said, imitating her voice. 

She gave him a jab in his ribs and a wicked grin spread across her face, “But I had you begging _’please’_ by the end, didn’t I?”

“Yeah you did,” Hans whispered before pressing his mouth against hers. But then he remembered just how long they had been in her room. “Shit, I-,” he pulled his phone out of his pocket to check the time. “I have a class.”

“Ok,” Anna gave him a small pat on the shoulder and stepped away from him. 

He stood and scooped up his bag, “I’ll see you around.” 

“Hans,” she said as his hand reached the doorknob.

“Yeah?” he looked back at her. 

Anna held up a handful of highlighters.

“Right,” Hans laughed and walked back over to take them from her. He hovered close to her for a moment before placing a quick peck on her lips. “Thanks.”


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s another Friday night. Anna navigates her feelings, Hans runs into a familiar face, and Kristoff contemplates trust.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Content Warning: references to outing]

Anna swallowed hard as she walked out the front door of Castle Hall. Hans was standing out on the sidewalk waiting for her as he always was on Friday evenings for their walk over to Kristoff’s. 

“Ready to go?” he asked with his easy smile as she approached. 

“Yep,” Anna confirmed, not stopping to chat further. 

She was ready in the sense that she had all her books with her for working on their assignment and she was dressed and ready for going out later. But was she _ready_ ready? Ready for whatever potential awkwardness lay ahead for tonight? Less so. 

Of course Anna had seen both Hans and Kristoff yesterday in class. But she had gotten to class just as it started and then took off as soon as it was finished. It had only left enough time for quick _hello’s_ and _goodbye’s_. But tonight the three of them would be spending hours together. 

They were only about half a block off campus when Anna stopped walking. “I’m freaking out a little bit.” 

“What?” Hans stopped as well and looked at her concerned. “What are you freaking out about?”

Anna gave him a _look_. 

“Oh. Riiight.” Hans scratched at the back of his neck and then dropped his arm. “Just… don’t think about it.”

Anna blinked. “Don’t think about it? That’s it? _That’s_ your advice?”

“Look, I-,” Hans seemed to hesitate for a moment before reaching out and placing a hand on her upper arm. “It’s a Friday night, alright? So, we’re going to go to Kristoff's, work on this assignment, eat some shitty pizza, and then go to a house party. And we’re all going to have a lot of fun. Because that’s what we do every Friday night, don’t we?”

Anna nodded. She had really come to love these Friday nights out with Kristoff and Hans. 

Hans smiled at her. “So, there is no reason why tonight should be any different. Just have fun and don’t worry about who has had or who will have sex with whoever else because it’s all just… whatever. It doesn’t matter. It’s _college_.” He gave her arm a small shake before dropping his hand. 

Anna always felt she had a pretty casual attitude towards sex, but Hans seemed to take that to the extreme. “It’s not going to be weird for you? Seeing him and I together tonight?” 

“ _What?_ ” He looked at her as if she were crazy. “No, I don’t give a fuck about that. Besides, just like every other Friday night, I will at some point,” Hans mimed walking with his fingers, “wander off to find my own person to hook up with. And then you two can go back to his place and have... what I’m assuming from his personality is very boring sex.”

Anna rolled her eyes and started walking away from him. 

“That was a _joke_ , Anna” Hans called after her. “I was jooooking.”

“You can’t say shit like that to me,” Anna told him as he caught back up to her. “I know you like to tease me, but if _this_ ,” she gestured back and forth between them, “is going to be a thing then _that_ topic needs to be off limits. It’s just too weird otherwise. Plus you’re wrong.” 

“When do I ever tease you?” Hans asked, clearly avoiding the point she was making. 

“You _always_ tease me.”

He grinned at her. “Only because you make it so easy.” 

Anna shook her head. That stupid, sexy grin of his. 

“Fine,” he sighed. “I promise. That topic stays off limits.” 

“Thank you.”

They walked in silence for another block before Hans spoke again. 

“So, which one of us has the bigger dick?”

“Oh my _god!_ ” Anna shoved him and started walking faster. “What is _wrong_ with you?” 

Hans laughed, “Ok, ok, I promise not to say anything starting… _now_.”

{ ~ }

“Have you just completely given up on dressing yourself then?” Hans asked as him and Anna looked through Kristoff’s closet. 

“Yep,” Kristoff answered. He was sitting on the edge of his bed, leaning back on his hands. “What’s the point if you two just always make me change anyway?”

“This one?” Anna asked, holding up a forest green flannel. 

“Yeah, that’s good enough.” 

Anna took the shirt off it’s hanger and began to walk it over to Kristoff. As she did, he stood and pulled his hoodie up and off over his head. 

Hans casually glanced over. Kristoff had a white undershirt on and the thin material of it stretched over the muscles of his arms and shoulders. He knew there was a certain fruitlessness in checking out straight guys. But, there was also no harm in looking once in a while. 

~

“So, when does lacrosse season actually start up?” Kristoff asked him. 

The three of them had found a relatively quiet corner of the party, away from the loud music in the next room, where they could actually talk. 

“This week actually. Our home opener is Wednesday.” Hans was excited for it. Coach hadn’t finalized the starters yet, and Hans was still only a sophomore, but he knew he had a shot to get a lot more playing time this year. 

“It’s going to be so much fun.” Anna said, putting her hand on Kristoff’s arm. 

“You’re coming?” Hans asked, a bit surprised. 

“Of course I am! Ryder is my best friend.”

_Right._

“Besides, I love going to cheer on AU. Even if I don’t know anyone on the team or have any idea what’s going on. But, seriously Kristoff you should come.”

“Wednesday afternoon, is it?” 

“Yep,” Hans confirmed. “On the big field behind the athletic center.”

Kristoff nodded. “I don’t have any classes or work-study then, so, yeah. I’ll be there.”

Hans smiled and then went to go take a sip of his beer, but realized his cup was empty. “Oh. Whose turn is it to get refills?” 

When he looked back up he saw that both Anna and Kristoff were touching the tips of their noses with their fingers. 

“Seriously? This is how we’re deciding now?”

“Yep!” Anna declared, handing him her cup. 

Kristoff handed off his cup as well. “Better be faster than that on the lacrosse field this Wednesday.” 

“Ha. Ha.” Hans said sarcastically, taking their cups and heading off to the kitchen. 

The night was going well. There wasn’t any awkward energy and Anna had seemed to relax a bit from her earlier almost freakout. It was all fine. 

Hans let his eyes wander the crowd as he walked back to the kitchen. He hadn’t really started looking for who he wanted to leave the party with yet. But it was still early in the night and there were a lot of people here. Plenty of options. 

Luckily there was no line for the keg when he got to the kitchen. He bent down to pick up the keg tap and began to fill the cups. He was just about done with the last one when he heard his name. 

“Hans?”

He looked up and then stood straight up when he saw who it was. “Eric. Hi.”

“Hey,” Eric said with a wide smile. “Where have you been hiding out all semester?”

That’s right, they _hadn’t_ seen each other at all yet this semester. When was the last time? Last November? 

“Oh, you know,” Hans shrugged, “just around.” He finished filling the last cup and handed the keg tap over to Eric. 

“Well, it’s good to see you,” Eric said as he began to fill up his own cup. 

“Yeah. It’s good to see you too.” 

And it was. Eric had these amazing sky-blue eyes which stood in sharp contrast to his jet black hair. 

“So. Three beers, huh?” Eric said with a small laugh as he motioned over to the cups. “Is it that kind of a night?”

“Nah,” Hans smiled back, “Just the one for me. The other two are for my friends. It was my turn to get the refills.”

“Oh?” Eric’s eyes lit up at that. “I can help you carry them back to your friends if you want.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, of course. Four cups, four hands,” Eric waved his free hand in the air. “Besides, I haven’t met any of your friends before.”

Hans hesitated for a moment. He had never brought a person he was planning to go home with back over to Anna and Kristoff. Flirting usually worked better without an audience. But Hans couldn’t do his typical disappearing act right in this moment - he was holding Anna and Kristoff’s cups. But, also, _shit_ , the idea of turning Eric down right now felt crazy. So, does he actually bring Eric over to meet Anna and Kristoff? 

What was worse? A bit of awkward conversation or missing out on guaranteed amazing sex?

“That’d be great, thank you,” Hans said with a wide smile as he handed one of the cups over to Eric. “This way.”

As they made their way back, Hans could see Anna and Kristoff’s eyes going back and forth between him and Eric. _Please guys, please don’t be weird about this._

“Eric, these are my friends, Anna and Kristoff. Guys, this is Eric.”

They all said their _hello’s_ as Hans handed Anna and Kristoff their cups and took his own back from Eric. 

Anna was beaming and Hans could see all the gears turning in her head. Oh god, she was going to start asking Eric _questions_ , wasn’t she?

“Soooo, did you two just meet in the kitchen or…”

“Oh no,” Eric said with a small laugh. “We’ve known each other for, ahh,” he looked to Hans for confirmation. 

“A long time.”

“Yeah, a long time.”

“And we just happened to run into each other in the kitchen and Eric offered to help carry the cups back.” 

“Right. And I was here with some of my teammates but,” he shrugged, “they won’t miss me.”

“Oh, you play a sport?” Anna asked, seizing onto the first bit of tangible information. 

“Yep. I’m on the baseball team.”

“Yeah?” That seemed to catch Kristoff’s interest. “What’s your position?”

“Shortstop,” Hans said quickly before Eric could say anything inappropriate. And judging by the small smirk and sideways glare that Eric then gave him, he had _definitely_ been planning to say something inappropriate. 

“You a baseball fan?” Eric asked, turning his attention back to Kristoff. 

“Yeah, for sure.”

“What’s your team?”

“Mets.”

“Good man.” Eric gave Hans’s arm a squeeze. “Can you believe this guy here is a Yankees fan?” 

Kristoff looked at Hans and made a _tisk tisk_ sound while shaking his head. 

“At least my team has actually won a World Series in my lifetime,” Hans said, earning him an eye roll from Kristoff. 

Hans took a sip of his beer. Was this weird? No, it wasn’t weird. Why _should_ it be weird? Ok, it felt a bit weird. Or, it felt… couple-y? Like they were a pair of couples in their thirties at a dinner party having idle small talk. Like next they would be moving onto ‘some weather we’re having’ or ‘well that politics for ya’ or some other shit. 

But Anna and Kristoff weren’t a couple. And him and Eric _definitely_ weren’t a couple. 

The feeling of it crawled under his skin. Hans scanned the party, looking for some kind of distraction. 

“Who wants to play some flip cup?”

{ ~ }

Kristoff wasn’t sure if this Eric guy was someone that Hans was friends with or, like, _friends_ friends with. Not that it mattered. It was cool either way. Obviously. It’s just that Hans had never introduced them to anyone he knew before, either friend or _friend_ friend. 

But any thoughts on that topic were quickly overtaken by a different kind of dread as they stepped up to the flip cup table. They had found another group of four to play against. _’So lucky!’_ according to Anna. 

“How we lining up?” Hans asked. 

Kristoff remembered his instructions from last time, how better players go on the outside and worse players go in the middle. “All I know is that I need to stand near the middle.”

“Very good,” Anna gave him a pat on the arm. She took her spot at the end of the table next to him. 

“Hans, you go in the middle too,” Eric said. “I’ll start us off.”

“Excuse me, _what?_ ” Hans crossed his arms. Kristoff could tell he was trying to sound annoyed, but there was a familiar playfulness in his tone. 

“What do you mean _what?_ I’m better than you at flip cup.”

“Since when?”

“Since always. Now move,” Eric gave Hans a hip bump. 

Hans rolled his eyes, but acquiesced and took his spot next to Kristoff. 

Kristoff took a deep breath as the game started up, desperately trying to remember how he managed to flip the cup last time he played this game all those weeks back. 

Eric and Hans both flipped their cups on the first try, which meant that it was very quickly Kristoff’s turn. 

Kristoff missed his first try, but Hans’s voice was in his ear. “You got this. Just like last time, nice and easy.”

_Nice and easy. Nice and easy. Nice and easy._

Kristoff lined his cup up again, hit it again, and _yes!_ flipped it. 

Then it was Anna’s turn - a perfect flip on the first try, and they won!

They all cheered and Kristoff went to give Hans a high five. But as soon as he turned to do so, Kristoff saw Eric cup Hans’s face in his hands and plant a kiss on his mouth. Kristoff quickly turned around and offered the high five to Anna instead. 

She seemed confused by the gesture, but returned it and then gave him a big hug. 

~

Thankfully they had only ended up playing that one round of flip cup. Afterwards the four of them moved into the room where the music was playing. It was a large living room and the couches and furniture had been pushed away from one side of the room to form a makeshift dance floor. 

A new song came on and Anna gasped. “I love this song! Kristoff, do you want to go dance?”

“Oh, ahhh,” he grimaced. “I-, I don’t dance.”

It’s not that he wanted to turn Anna down. It was just... dancing? In front of people? In front of _a lot_ of people? Anna and Hans didn’t need anymore ammunition for making fun of him. 

“I’ll dance with you,” Eric quickly offered, placing his cup down on a nearby table. 

“Yeah?” Anna looked at him and then back up at Kristoff. “Is that ok?” 

“Yeah, of course,” Kristoff said as he took her cup. It was perfect, actually. Anna still got to dance to the song she wanted to but Kristoff didn’t have to go embarrass himself. 

Eric took one of Anna’s hands and then held his other out to Hans, “Care to join us?”

“Thanks, but I’m going to keep the big guy company.” Hans gave Kristoff’s arm a nudge with his elbow. “I’ll get you on the next one.”

Kristoff and Hans stood there side by side as they watched Anna and Eric disappear into the crowded dance floor.

“You didn’t have to stay back for me,” Kristoff said.

“I don’t mind.” Hans gave him a small smile before facing forward. 

Kristoff looked back out across the crowd as well, easily spotting Anna’s bright red hair in the crowd. 

“So,” Hans spoke again after a while, “what’s the deal with you two?” 

“What?” He looked down at him. 

“You and Anna?”

“Oh,” Kristoff thought Hans already knew, “We’re, um, we’re sleeping together.”

“Yeah, no shit,” Hans said, “I mean, like, what’s the deal there? Are you two... getting serious?”

Kristoff thought on that. Anna and him had had their talk, about what this was and what this wasn’t. What each of them did and didn’t want. He hadn’t known then just how much of a regular thing this would become, though. How it stopped even being a question that Anna would come back and spend the night at his place every Friday. 

But while these Friday nights - and Saturday mornings - with her had been amazing, nothing had really changed since that conversation after their first night together. He still didn’t have time for a girlfriend. Anna still wanted her freedom. And as he watched her out on the dance floor - smiling and laughing and jumping around with Eric - Kristoff knew he wanted that for her too. 

“No,” Kristoff shook his head, “nothing serious.”

Hans just nodded and took a sip of his beer. 

Neither of them said anything for a while, the music filling the silence between them. Kristoff glanced over at him at one point, but Hans was just staring out at the dance floor. He was being uncharacteristically quiet. 

Had Hans been trying to start a deeper conversation with him just now? Kristoff was still trying to get better at things like this, things like ‘making friends’ and ‘holding a conversation for more than two seconds’. If someone asked you a question, the polite thing to do was to answer and then ask a question in return, right? That’s how you kept conversations going? He thought about all the times Maren had tried to start a conversation with him in class and how badly his socially inept ass had flubbed that potential friendship. 

It was important, though, to be better this time. To be better at this kind of thing with Hans specifically. Because if Kristoff couldn’t even hold a simple conversation with him at a party then how could he ever…

Kristoff looked down and rubbed his thumb back and forth across the rim of his cup. He had to do it. He had to push through the awkwardness. 

He cleared his throat. “So, what’s the deal with you and Eric?”

“What?” Hans’s head snapped up to look at him. 

“I was just asking about you and-.”

“I don’t talk about that,” Hans said shortly. 

Kristoff felt brushed back. “Well, ok. I mean, you asked me about Anna so I just-,”

“It’s different.”

“It’s not really.”

“It is.”

“How?”

“You wouldn’t understand.”

“I wouldn’t-,” Kristoff was annoyed now. “Ok, fine, whatever,” he grumbled as he looked away. 

_What the fuck?_ How did Kristoff manage to fuck that conversation up so badly that the two of them were now back to bickering like this? 

“Kristoff,” Hans sighed, “I-, I’m sorry for snapping like that.”

Kristoff looked back at him since his tone actually sounded sincere. 

“But I promise that I wasn’t trying to be shitty to you just then.”

“Then what is it?” 

“Ok, look,” Hans glanced around them and then stepped closer to Kristoff, dropping his voice lower. “I don’t talk about the guys I hook up with. It’s just a rule I have for myself. Because I would never want to-, it’s just the risk of ever even _accidentally_ …” 

Hans trailed off, rubbing his forehead and seemingly trying to find the right words. 

“Not everyone wants everyone to know, you know? So, even if the other guy is… obvious… for lack of a better word, or even if he’s giving me a kiss in the middle of a crowded party, I still don’t make exceptions to that rule. Because it’s an important rule for me and once you start making exceptions to a rule then it’s not really a rule anymore.” Hans searched his face for a moment. “Do you understand what I’m trying to say?” 

Kristoff nodded quickly, trying to keep his face as neutral as possible. 

“Ok. So, I wasn’t trying to be shitty to you just then or brush you off. I was just trying not to have such a,” he sighed, “ _heavy_ fucking conversation in the middle of a party.” 

“Right, right,” Kristoff nodded again, “I understand.” 

It was as if Hans was holding a giant, blinking, neon sign above his head that read ‘TRUST ME’. 

Isn’t that the kind of thing Kristoff had been hoping for? Proof that Hans was someone who could be trusted with Kristoff’s… questions. It should reassure him. Then why didn’t it? Why did it roil around in his stomach instead? Making him feel like he was going to be sick. 

Hans was watching him intently. “You _knew_ I was bi, right? Before tonight?”

“Yes,” Kristoff said a little too defensively. 

“Because Anna told you?”

“ _No._ I figured it out on my own. Obviously.” 

“Ohhh,” Hans’s eyebrows went up and he sounded somewhat offended, “it was so obvious, huh?”

 _Fuck._ He has no idea what the right answer was here. 

“No, I-, no, that’s not what I-,” but as Kristoff stumbled over his words Hans burst out laughing. Kristoff froze for a moment before realizing what was happening. “You’re fucking with me.” 

“Yes, _of course_ I’m fucking with you. Christ. You really need to relax.”

Kristoff let out a deep breath and shook his head. “You know you’re one of the most irritating people I’ve ever met, right?” 

“Yeah, I get that a lot,” Hans responded causing Kristoff to laugh. 

{ ~ }

Anna was having so much fun out on the dance floor with Eric. It was actually kind of refreshing to dance with a guy who wasn’t trying to feel her up the whole time. 

They just bounced around, singing the words as loud as they could at each other.

__

_Heartbreakers gonna break, break, break, break, break  
And the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake_

Eric made overly dramatic facial expressions and was doing some of the hand movements from the music video. Anna giggled and joined in on the silliness.

__

_Baby, I'm just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake  
I shake it off, I shake it off_

As the song began to wind down, Eric leaned closer to her. “I can’t believe your boyfriend didn’t want to dance with you,” he said in that sort of shout-talking a person needed to do when there was loud music.

“Oh, no,” Anna shook her head, “Kristoff isn’t my boyfriend.”

“Well,” Eric waved his hand dismissively, “whatever he is, he’s crazy. Because I’m gay and even I couldn’t turn down a dance with a girl as beautiful as you.” 

“Oh, what a charmer,” Anna grinned at him. “But am I really that beautiful? Or do you just have a thing for redheads?” 

Eric laughed at that and then looked over in the direction of Hans. “I think I might just have a thing for one redhead in particular.” 

This guy was great, Anna thought. Why hadn’t Hans brought him around before now?

“You can dance with him this next song then,” Anna hooked her arm in Eric’s and led him off the dance floor. 

As they approached, Kristoff went to hand Anna back her cup. Instead she reached out and took the one that Hans was holding. 

“What are you doing?” he raised an eyebrow at her but still let her take his cup. 

Eric took one of his hands then and began to pull on his arm, singing along the song that was now playing. 

__

_I wanna cut through the clouds, break the ceiling  
I wanna dance on the roof, you and me alone_

Hans rolled his eyes, “Oh god, not the singing.”

__

_I wanna cut to the feeling, oh yeah  
I wanna cut to the feeling, oh yeah_

But, as Eric continued to sing and then began to sway his hips to the music, Anna saw a genuine smile spread across Hans’s face.

“See you guys in a bit.” Hans gave them a small wave over his shoulder as he allowed Eric to drag him out onto the dance floor. 

Anna leaned back against Kristoff’s chest and looked up at him. He smiled down at her with that lopsided grin of his. 

Hans had been right. Just relax, don’t think about it, have fun. Her and Kristoff were on the same page as to what their thing was and her and Hans were also on the same page as to what _their_ thing was. Nobody was doing anything wrong, nobody was getting hurt. 

She was happy. Kristoff was happy. Hans was happy. That’s all that mattered. And that’s what college was supposed to be. Young, happy, and free. 

{ ~ }

It was getting later in the night and the four of them had found an open couch. Anna was sitting up on Kristoff’s lap, her arm around the back of her neck. Eric was sitting close to Hans, his hand on his knee. 

Kristoff placed a hand on Anna’s hip and whispered something in her ear. Whatever it was made her smile. 

“We’re going to head out,” Anna said, standing up, “It was really great meeting you tonight, Eric.”

“You too,” Eric responded with a small wave. 

They all said their goodbyes and then once they were gone, Hans turned back to Eric. “You ready to head out, too?

Eric gave Hans’s leg a squeeze. “Definitely.” 

~

As soon as they were back in Eric’s bedroom, Eric was pulling his shirt up and off over his head. Hans was on him instantly, kissing him and running his hands over his muscles. 

_Fuck_ , Eric had an incredible body. 

Hans gave Eric a small shove and he landed back on the mattress. He shed his own shirt before joining him, slowly kissing his way up the other man’s torso as he climbed on top of him. 

“How do you want to do this?” Hans hummed as he got to Eric’s neck, nipping at the spot behind his ear that he knew drove Eric crazy. 

Eric surprised him then, rolling Hans over onto his back and pinning his hands to the mattress. “I want to fuck you tonight. If that’s ok.”

Hans usually topped when they were together. But him and Eric were both vers, so they’d done it both ways. Eric had actually been the first guy Hans bottomed with, way back when. 

“More than ok.”

{ ~ }

How did it get better every time? It didn’t seem possible to Kristoff, but it did. It got better every time. 

Anna moaned out his name as she leaned back, her hands bracing against his thighs as she rocked her hips against his. The angle of her body gave him an incredible view. 

“Fuck, _Anna_ , I’m-,”

But before he could finish saying the words, Anna was easing up her motions and slowing down her pace, pulling him back from the edge. 

It drove Kristoff crazy when she did this. Working him all the way up to the brink and then not letting him go over. But he knew that it would be worth it in the end, knew that his eventual release would be that much better, 

They were doing things like this, trying things he had never tried before. Anna seemed to like to take charge, so he followed her lead. And she was keeping her heels on each time without Kristoff even needing to ask. 

Kristoff propped himself up on his elbows as Anna leaned forward. She kissed him hard on mouth as she braced her hands against his shoulders and began to pick up her speed again. 

{ ~ } 

Hans reached up and gripped tightly onto the bars of the headboard above him, his eyes squeezed shut. 

“Fuck, Hans, _fuck_ ,” Eric cursed out as he slowly beagn to work himself into a rhythm, “You feel amazing.” 

Hans opened his eyes then and let them sweep up the length of Eric’s body. The v-cut of his abs and the rolling movement of his torso as he fucked him. The muscles of his arms and shoulders that flexed as he grabbed tightly onto the back of Hans’s knees, pressing his legs further back to allow him deeper access. And then finally up to Eric’s face and the piercing blue eyes that were staring down at him. 

“Hold your legs,” Eric breathed out. 

Hans released his grip on the headboard and hooked his hands behind his knees as Eric let go of them. Eric then bent forward, bracing himself with one forearm on the mattress and bringing the other hand up to cup Hans’s face. 

The change in angle caused Hans to gasp, but Eric caught his mouth with a kiss. 

“Harder,” Hans moaned when we was able to form words again. 

Eric instantly obliged. “Like that?”

“Yeah, fuck, just like that. _Shit_ that’s incredible.” Hans let himself get lost in the sensations. Eric’s hips snapping against him. The weight of his body on top of him. Eric’s smell and his breath heavy on his face. The feeling of Eric fucking him and the sweet surrender of being filled. 

“ _You’re_ incredible,” Eric said as he ran the tips of his fingers across Hans’s lips. His hand moved down then, down his neck and his chest. “I want to make you feel so good.”

Eric’s hand moved lower and lower and Hans felt his breath hitch when it finally made contact with his cock. Hans closed his eyes and let his head fall back against the mattress, his mind struggling to think at the dual sensations of being jerked and fucked. 

{ ~ }

“So, it was like, 2am? Or something like that. It was super late. And Ryder and I are just getting back to the dorms, and we’re walking up the stairwell and there is just _water_ , just _flowing_ down the stairs.”

Anna hovered above him telling her story as he laid back with his head on a pillow, their naked bodies tangled up in the sheets. The way Anna was leaning over him kept causing her hair to fall into her face. Each time it did Kristoff would brush it back behind her ear, enjoying the feel of it.

“Not like a lot, not like a waterfall or anything. But enough water to make you think, what the fuck? Right? So we follow the water all the way up to the third floor. And the guys there have set up a slip ‘n slide in the hallway.”

“A slip ‘n slide?” Kristoff raised an eyebrow. 

“Yeah.”

“Like the thing for kids that you put in the backyard?”

“Yeah. But it was homemade. They taped together a bunch of plastic garbage bags and then used water and soap from the bathroom to make it slippery.” 

“That sounds dangerous.”

“Oh, it was _incredibly_ dangerous. But also so much fun.”

Kristoff laughed, “You actually went down it?”

“Of _course_ I did! You only live once, right?”

{ ~ }

“So, I’m sliding into second base, but the guy on the other team is crowding the bag. Which means when I pop up, I bump him. I don’t mean to bump him, of course, but when you crowd the bag like that, you got to expect the runner to make contact with you.” 

Hans was laying on his back with his hands behind his head. Eric was on his side next to him, propped up on one elbow, letting his fingers trace lazy patterns across Hans’s abdomen as he told his story. 

“But then he gets pissed and starts talking shit. So I start talking shit back. But then he decides to throw in an ever-original ‘cocksucker’.” 

Hans rolled his eyes. “Why is that always the go-to insult for every straight jock? It’s not even really an insult. Sucking cock is hard work.”

“Exactly! And those that are great at it,” Eric gave Hans a quick peck on the lips, “should be honored.”

Hans smiled, “And can you imagine if those guys’ girlfriends ever boycotted sucking cock?”

“Oh _god_ no. They’re already a bunch of whiny bitches as it is. So, anyway, I slugged him and that’s how I got thrown out of the game.”

He started laughing at that, “Wait, you actually _hit_ him?” 

“Yeah, I don’t give a fuck.”

{ ~ }

“This one good?” Kristoff asked. 

“Hmm,” Anna scrunched her mouth over to one side, “I think it might be too warm tonight for a hoodie.”

He held up a long sleeve t-shirt instead. 

“Perfect,” Anna said as she snatched it and pulled it over her head. 

Kristoff pulled on some clothes himself and they both crawled under the covers. He put his arm around her as she snuggled up close to his chest. 

“Goodnight,” he said, giving her a kiss on the forehead. 

Anna responded with a kiss on his chin. “Goodnight.”

Kristoff closed his eyes and slowly began to drift off. 

{ ~ }

“It’s getting late,” Hans said as he sat up, “I should probably start heading out.”

Eric knew he shouldn’t say it. It was a stupid thing to say, a stupid thing to ask. Especially when Hans’s response was always the same. 

But tonight had been different, right? He met some of Hans’s friends and they had all hung out and got along so well. That had to mean something, right? 

“You could stay the night,” Eric said, trying to sound as casual as possible, “If you wanted to.”

“That’s ok, I’ll just head out,” Hans said as he stood up from the bed. 

_Stupid._

Eric grabbed a pair of sweatpants up off his floor and then sat on the edge of his bed in silence as Hans got dressed. 

Eleven times now. Those eleven times were spread out over more than a year and a half, but still. Eleven times that they had been together like this. And eleven times that Hans had then gotten dressed and left. 

He must have missed his window, somewhere along the way. 

That first time they were together, Hans was just a freshman. Only two weeks into his first semester of college. 

Eric remembered the exact moment he first saw him, standing there across a crowded room at a party. He was the most gorgeous man that Eric had ever seen and it had taken all the courage he had to walk over and strike up a conversation. They clicked instantly and Eric was quickly captured by everything about Hans - his smile, his laugh, his charm. 

Back in Eric’s bedroom that night, Hans had admitted that he’d never bottomed before. It was something Hans said he really wanted to try though, so Eric made sure to go slow with him. 

They had talked after, and Hans still seemed so confused and new to it all. It made Eric not want to rush things. Made him want to give Hans the space he needed to figure things out. So, Eric kept his feelings to himself. 

But even that first night together, Hans didn’t want to sleep over. 

So maybe there was never a window. Maybe he was just a fool. A fool, to keep doing this and hoping that _this_ would be the time that Hans stayed. That _this_ would be the time his feelings would be reciprocated. But it never happened, and each time it hurt more and more to watch him go. 

Eric stood once Hans finished getting dressed and walked him out of his bedroom and through the living room. 

“Hey,” Eric said in a quiet voice as they got to his front door. Hans turned back to look at him. Eric brought his hands up to Hans’s face and kissed him, slow and passionate and hopefully saying all the things Eric wasn’t brave enough to say himself. 

“You have my number,” Eric said after breaking the kiss. “Don’t make me wait so long for the next time.”

Those pale green eyes watched for a moment before Hans placed a light kiss on his lips. “I’ll see you around.” 

And then he was gone. 

{ ~ }

Hans zipped up his jacket the rest of the way as he turned onto the sidewalk outside of Eric’s apartment. It was nearly spring, but there was still a chill in the air this late at night. 

Eleven times. Eleven times was probably too many times, wasn’t it? 

Arendelle U was a big school, but there were still only so many queer guys on campus. It was inevitable then, to have more repeat times with guys than with girls. But eleven was still the most number of times he had been with anybody. 

Hans knew he led people on sometimes. It’s not that he went out of his way to do it. But, he didn’t always go out of his way to _not_ do it either. But that’s part of what the game was, right? The flirting and the seduction. There was an inherent level of dishonesty that everybody practiced when it came to this stuff. 

Even nicest-person-in-the-world Anna had teased and played with Hans a bit before they had sex that first night. 

Hans had never lied to Eric. Never made him any promises. Never hinted at any deeper feelings. Hans never slept over and the two of them had never hung out outside of the nights they hooked up. So, if Eric had caught feelings somewhere along the way, that was on him. 

Hooking up was just hooking up. Sex was just sex. Hans always made sure to keep things separate. To be responsible for his own emotions. To control them, keep them in check. So why couldn’t others do the same with theirs? 

It was simple self preservation and anyone who wasn’t willing to practice it was just asking to get hurt. Hans had learned that lesson long before he ever got to college. 

It was late and he didn’t pass too many other people as he walked back to campus. He paused when he got to the intersection where The Trading Post was; watched some stragglers staggering their way out as it closed up for the night. 

Hans looked up the block to his left. It was empty and quiet and illuminated only by the yellow glow of the street lights. He put his hands in his pockets before looking forward again and continuing his walk back to campus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The two songs in this chapter are Shake It Off by Taylor Swift and Cut To The Feeling by Carly Rae Jepsen. And with that it feels like a good time for a reminder that there is a playlist for this fic, which can be found here:  
> https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7JqA6fjQnAKXTeHbImJCYo?si=itYN5r5DRvmDucZyPyyXIA


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The rest of Anna's weekend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wanted to start off this chapter with a thank you to Liv for making me a logo for Room For You in the colors of the bi pride flag. It’s amazing and can be found on my tumblr here:
> 
> https://leaves-of-laurelin.tumblr.com/post/622384666983497728/my-infinite-thanks-to-the-lovely-and-amazing
> 
> Also, that’s my tumblr… come say hi.

Anna turned the light off in the bathroom and began to creep back into Kristoff’s room. It was still the middle of the night so she was trying not to make too much noise. She had been able to extract herself from the bed without waking him up and wanted to slip back in without waking him either. 

As she entered his room the sight before her stopped her. 

The curtains of the window hadn’t been closed all the way and the yellow glow of the street lights outside filled the room. Kristoff was sleeping on his side, facing her, and the light was softly illuminating the curves of his broad shoulders as well as his messy hair and the strong features of his face. 

Anna smiled as she looked at him. He really was handsome. 

She turned around and got her book bag from the living room. Coming back into his room, she walked over to Kristoff’s desk. As quietly as she could, she turned the desk chair around so that it was facing the bed. She sat down, pulling her knees up and letting her feet hang off the edge of the chair, and opened up her sketchbook. 

~

“You ready to get up?” Kristoff asked with a yawn. 

Anna peeked an eye open to see the bright morning light filling the room. She shut it again and rolled over with a grumble. 

Kristoff chuckled as he began to get out of the bed. He was on the side that was pushed up against the wall so he needed to climb over her to get out. He paused as he was halfway over and straddling her, nuzzling at her neck and placing a few kisses there, before fully swinging his legs off the bed and standing up. 

Anna let out a disappointed whine at the loss of his body warmth. 

“C’mon,” he said, giving her a poke. “It’s time for breakfast.”

“Breakfast can wait,” Anna said, taking the pillow that Kristoff had just been using and covering her face with it. 

“Fine. I didn’t want to have to do this but...” 

She felt his arms working their way under her body. 

“What are you doing?” she laughed, trying to squirm away from him. 

But he got one arm around her back and the other under her legs and lifted her up off the bed. Anna feigned her disapproval with a pout, but the truth was there was a certain thrill in just how easily Kristoff was able to pick her up. 

Kristoff gave her a kiss on the forehead and carried her out to the living room, placing her down on the couch.

“I’ll go make the eggs.” He went to stand up straight, but Anna grabbed onto the front of his shirt and pulled him down for a kiss. He smiled against her mouth before kissing her back.

Kristoff slowly began to sink into her as they kissed. He placed a knee down on the couch in between her legs, but still had to keep one foot on the ground as his small couch wasn’t really built for make out sessions. 

Anna brought her hands up around the back of his neck, running her fingernails gently across his scalp. 

Kristoff let out a happy hum and he circled his arms around her, standing back up and taking her with him. Anna wrapped her legs around his waist. 

“I thought it was time for breakfast,” she laughed as he started carrying her back towards the bedroom. 

Kristoff gave her a wide, bright smile. “Like you said, breakfast can wait.”

~

That night Anna followed her normal Saturday night routine. Ryder hung out in her room until she was done getting ready, then they headed out with their larger group of friends - girls from her floor and guys from his.

They found a house party off campus. There were red solo cups and laughter, selfies and gossip. Her and Ryder teamed up for a couple of rounds of beer pong. 

Anna spent a considerable amount of time out on the dance floor, her and her friends dancing and singing...

_Can't read my, can't read my_  
_No, he can't read my poker face_  
_She's got me like nobody_

~

The night was getting late and a number of her friends, including Ryder, had either paired off or found new people to go home with. Anna was leaning up against a wall, watching the party begin to die down and turning her phone over and over in her hands. There really hadn’t been any guys tonight that caught her interest. 

That was becoming a trend, actually. So far this semester she had gone to bed alone every Saturday night. Except for that first Saturday night of course. 

Anna chewed at her lip. She wondered what Hans was up to tonight. He was probably out at a party somewhere, right? He didn’t seem the type to just sit in his room on a Saturday night. 

She unlocked her phone and opened up her messages. Friends texted each other to meet up while out. That was a normal thing, right? Or, would this be obvious because of how late at night it was? 

No, it’s fine, she could just send a quick text. 

But it needed to be something that people who were actually _just friends_ might also text each other. Hans had said that he was up for hooking up again, but Anna always hated coming off as needy. So, the text should be something vague. Something noncommittal. Something not… thirsty. 

She thought it over for a bit more before typing out a message and sending it. 

_you out tonight?_

There. It was done and sent, so she could stop thinking about it. Who knows if he even looks at his phone while he’s out. Even if he did see it he might not-

Her phone buzzed. 

_yeah, wanna meet up?_

Anna smiled. 

~ 

Anna glanced back over her shoulder before opening the window at the end of the hallway. She stuck her head out to see Hans standing on the ground below. He gave her a smile and began to climb up the pipe that ran up the side of the building. She gave him a small peck on the lips as he stepped in through the window and the two of them hurried down the hallway to her room. 

As soon as Anna closed and locked her door, Hans was pulling her close and kissing her. 

“Let’s at least make it up onto the bed this time.” 

“Ok,” he said, pulling back. “Go plug those lights in.”

As she turned around Hans gave her a pat on her rear end. Anna batted his hand away and headed over to the bed to plug in her string lights. 

He toed off his shoes and began to climb up onto her bed. Anna saw an opportunity for payback then, rearing back and smacking him hard on the ass. 

Hans yelped, spinning around and landing flat on his back on the bed. “That was so much harder than how I hit you!” 

“Forgive me?” Anna asked as she climbed up on the bed and then on top of him. 

Hans smiled and his eyes sparkled. “I guess so.”

His hands ran down her body as she kissed him. Their first two times together had been quick, rushed affairs. Anna wanted it to be different this time, wanted it to last. Hans seemed to want that to, giving attention to every bit of newly exposed skin as they slowly undressed each other. It gave Anna the chance to admire his body as well - hard muscle, strong but lithe. 

Once their clothes were shed, Hans rolled her onto her back and began to kiss down her neck and chest. He lingered at her breasts, kissing and swirling his tongue around one nipple and then the other. She arched her back into his caresses and ran her fingers through his hair, messing it up from where it had been perfectly in place. 

Hans kissed lower and lower then, his teeth eventually grazing over her hip bone. 

Anna spread her legs wider as he settled down in between them. Those green eyes looked up at her as Hans dipped his head down and ran his tongue along her full length of her slit. Her head rolled back, unable to maintain the eye contact. She brought one hand up to her breast and the other fisted in the sheets. Anna rolled her hips up into him as his lips, tongue, and fingers working in expert fashion. 

“ _Holy fuck_ , you’re really good at that,” Anna gasped, the words falling out of her almost involuntarily. 

And then she felt Hans grin - _fucking grin_ \- against her before his mouth returned to its movements. She was about to chide herself for giving him an unnecessary ego boost but then his fingers curled again in _that_ amazing way and all other thoughts left her mind. 

Anna clamped her legs together and pressed her hand against the back of his head. And, _god_ , she was probably smothering him a bit but fuck it he’d be fine. Her mouth fell open in a silent cry as the bliss tore through her body.

As her mind came back into focus, Anna released Hans from her clutches and let her legs fall back open. 

Hans sat back on his heels and Anna looked down at the sight of him. His perfectly proportioned body, the lust in his eyes, the grin on his face as he wiped her wetness from his mouth. And even though she had just came, Anna was suddenly aching for more. 

His fingers danced across the insides of her thighs. 

“Top drawer,” she said, motioning her head to the side. 

Hans reached down over the edge of the bed and opened the top drawer of her dresser. He took out a condom and began to open the wrapper. 

“Any preference for position?” Anna asked, running her foot up and down the side of his body as he rolled the condom on. 

Hans leaned forward, balancing on one forearm and bringing his other hand up to her face. “Just like this,” he said, brushing his thumb across her cheek. 

Anna kissed him as he pressed into her. Her fingernails dragged down his back and his hand tighten into a fist in her hair as he began to fuck her. 

~

Afterwards they laid on their sides facing each other, pressed close together in her small bed. Hans had an arm around her, his fingers gently running back and forth across her shoulder blades. 

“Hey, um,” Hans began, slightly hesitant, “the hair pulling thing tonight was ok, right?”

Anna was surprised by his question. “Yeah, of course. We’ve done that before.”

“I know. But the first time we did it I asked first. And then the second time you, well,” he grinned, “you _requested_ it. This time I just kinda _did it_ so-,”

“No you’re good,” she assured him. “You have the green light to do that whenever. I’ll let you know if it’s ever too much.”

“Ok.” He nodded and then brushed some of her hair back behind her ear. “You like it then?” 

“I do,” she admitted. It wasn’t the kind of thing Anna normally went for, but there was something about the fire and intensity of Hans while he did it that got her. She also knew for certain that he would let go the second she told him to. So, it was like a control over her that she also still controlled. Anna wasn’t sure if that made sense, or if it was a bit twisted to feel that way, but she knew she liked it. 

“Me too,” Hans said softly, kissing her. 

When he pulled back from the kiss, Anna smiled at him and placed a hand on his chest. “It’s sweet.” 

He gave her a funny look. “You think the hair pulling is _sweet_?”

“No,” she laughed, “You checking in with me like that is sweet.”

He rolled his eyes but still smiled warmly at her. 

“So, your roommate is away again this weekend?” Hans asked, lifting his head up slightly to look over her shoulder and across to the empty bed on the other side of the room. 

“Yeah, Rebecca goes home every weekend.”

“Really?”

“Yep. She goes home to see her boyfriend. Every. Weekend. They’ve been together since they were, like, sixteen or whatever.”

Hans cringed. “Gross.”

“She seems happy, I guess.” Anna shrugged. “But she’s completely missing out on so many _amazing_ experiences because of… some guy. I can’t imagine thinking that the person you’re dating when you’re sixteen is going to be the person you spend the rest of your life with.”

“Yeah,” Hans said, settling his head back down on the pillow, “pretty stupid.” 

They talked for a while then, about how their nights had been before they met up, about classes, about gross dining hall food, about their favorite songs for karaoke at The Trading Post and how they _definitely_ needed to go there together one of these weekends. 

Anna eventually felt her eyelids growing heavy. She closed them as she listened to him talk. Not to go to sleep, just to rest them for a bit. 

“It’s, ah,” Hans said in a quiet voice, “it’s starting to get late.”

“Yeah,” she answered lazily, snuggling closer to him. 

The hand that had been rubbing her back stilled and then gave her a few light pats. 

Anna opened her eyes again, remembering what Hans had said that first night they had sex together. _”I don’t really do the whole sleeping over thing.”_

“Were you looking to head out now?” she asked. 

Hans gave her a small nod. “Yeah, I was going to head out.”

“Right.” She nodded back and they both sat up and climbed down off the bed. Anna pulled on some pajamas while Hans collected his clothes up off the floor and got dressed. 

“It’s not-, um,” Hans turned away from her as he looked for his socks, “it’s nothing specifically about-, I just never sleep over.”

“Hans, it’s ok. You don’t need to explain.” Anna meant it, he didn’t. 

He turned back to look at her, but his expression was unreadable. 

“It’s a really small bed anyway,” she added with a small laugh. 

“Yeah.” The corner of his mouth twitched up and then he finished getting dressed. 

~

When they got to the window at the end of the hallway, Hans turned to face her. “I had fun tonight.”

“Me too.”

Hans brought a hand up to her face, brushing his thumb across her bottom lip. He glanced back up the hallway, presumably to make sure nobody was there, and then gave her one last, soft kiss before climbing out the window. 

She closed and locked it behind him and then headed back to her room. 

Anna knew that she had cracked through at least some of his outer shell at some point. That first night at the beginning of the semester, when he was flirting with her at that party, she could tell that Hans was putting on an act. He didn’t do that with her anymore. But still, there was something elusive about him. Something more to him that she hadn’t quite found yet. 

When she got back to her room, Anna locked her door behind her and climbed up onto her bed. 

She would have let him sleep over, if he had wanted to. But, she really was fine with him not. Hans didn’t owe her that. And it wasn’t even that she specifically wanted _Hans_ to sleep over, it was just nice to fall asleep and wake up next to another person. Whoever it was. 

Anna looked across the room at her roommate’s perfectly made, and perfectly empty, bed. She unplugged her string lights and rolled over, pulling the sheets up over her shoulders. 

~

The next evening Anna was sitting around Elsa and Maren’s kitchen table for their weekly Sunday Family Dinner Night. The current topic of conversation was the first lacrosse game of the season which was just a couple of days away. Elsa and Maren were both coming to cheer on Ryder. 

“You’ll be there too, right Anna?” Maren asked. 

“Yep, we’re really excited to go,” Anna said before shoveling a forkful of pasta into her mouth. 

“Who is _we_?” 

“Huh?”

Elsa looked at her with a small smile. “You said _we’re_ really excited to go. So, who is this _we_?”

Anna chewed and swallowed, “Oh um, you remember Kristoff?”

That seemed to get the attention of everyone at the table. 

“I do.” Elsa nodded. “So he’s coming _with_ you?”

Anna knew where this was going. “No. Not _with me_ with me. We’re both just going. We have a mutual friend on the team, that’s all.”

“Who's your friend?” Ryder asked, being extremely unhelpful. 

“Hans,” she said reluctantly. 

Elsa paused with her fork halfway to her mouth. “You’re friends with that guy now? I thought he was just someone you were unfortunately grouped with for a class assignment.”

“That’s how it started out, I guess. But the three of us are friends now.” Anna pushed some of the food around on her plate. “He’s actually a pretty nice guy, once you get to know him.”

“Whatever you say.” 

~

Elsa and Maren had this small balcony off their apartment. Only big enough for two chairs, but it was still nice. It was Maren and Ryder’s turn this week to clean up after dinner, so Anna and Elsa were sitting out on it talking. 

Anna swirled the wine around in her glass - her real, actual wine glass. Sundays at Elsa and Maren’s were the only time Anna ever drank alcohol out of real glassware. It made her feel fancy and grown up. 

“You know,” Elsa began slowly, “if you ever were getting serious with someone-,”

“I’m not.”

“If you ever _were_. Hypothetically. You know you would be welcome to bring them here on Sundays.” 

“Well, thank you for that. But it won’t be necessary.”

“Ok.” Elsa smiled. “But just give me a heads up if you change your mind. Kristoff is a big guy so we’d have to make sure to buy more food.”

“ _Elsa._ ” Anna rolled her eyes. Her sister liked to poke at the topic of her love life, but Anna knew that it was all in good fun. 

“I’m just saying, I only met him that one time but he seemed nice.”

He was nice. And he was funny too, whenever he actually let his guard down. Which was happening more and more. He was a good man with a good heart. But Anna was sure about what she wanted, and what she didn’t. 

“He is nice,” Anna confirmed, “But a guy being nice doesn’t mean I should just automatically drop everything and make him my boyfriend.”

Elsa nodded. “True. Very true. Just, you know, make sure you stick with the nice ones.”

“I _do_ stick with the nice ones.” 

Elsa hummed in an unsure tone but didn’t say anything further on the subject. 

“I can’t believe you’re actually graduating in a couple of months,” Anna said, looking to change the topic of conversation. “You’re going to be, like, a real adult.”

Elsa smiled at that. 

“How do you feel?”

“Well,” Elsa leaned back in her chair, “I feel a lot of things I guess. A bit stressed about my classes. Excited, to be almost done and moving onto the next chapter. But also sad in some ways, because there will be friends that I won’t ever see as often as I do now.” She looked down at her glass. “And nervous, about the whole job search thing.”

“Really?” Anna didn’t expect that. “You won’t have any problem finding a job. You have perfect grades and extracurriculars and everything.”

“It’s not just getting a job. It’s about getting a job _where_. And Maren getting a job _where_. And if those two _where’s_ are… near each other.”

“Oh,” Anna said softly. 

“It’s fine though.” Elsa waved her hand. “We’re good. We’re going to make it work whatever happens. But you know me, I just like to worry.”

Anna reached her hand out and took Elsa’s, giving it a small squeeze. Elsa squeezed back. The two of them turned their attention to the view from the balcony then, looking out over the small neighborhood just off campus filled with houses and apartments occupied by upperclassmen. 

Thinking over what Elsa had just said, about getting a real job and _where_ , Anna realized that there was a whole other element to this thing with Kristoff that she hadn’t even thought of. 

Kristoff had talked about how him graduating this semester meant he would be extra busy. Tougher classes, heavier course load, lots studying. No time for a girlfriend or any kind of real relationship. But after this semester, after he graduated, Kristoff would be going off and getting a _real_ job. He could end up anywhere. 

Anna didn’t even want to be attached to a boyfriend here at school. But to be attached to a boyfriend that wasn’t even here? That lived maybe hours away? She thought about Rebecca and her empty bed. 

No. Anna could never do that. So, it was one more confirmation that she was making the right choice. 

The advice Hans had given her two days earlier rang in her head. _“Just have fun and don’t worry.”_ That seemed to be how he lived his life and he was happy. So, that’s what Anna would do too. Enjoy the time her and Kristoff would have together this semester and not worry about what comes after. 

There was a small twinge of sadness to that. That one day Kristoff would just be a series of happy memories. Hans too, she supposed. 

But that’s part of what college was. Meeting new and different people, having new and different experiences. People made lifelong friends in college, of course. But not every friendship was meant to last forever. And even if people don’t stay in your life forever, that doesn’t mean they were any less important or that the time you spent with them was any less special.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As we cross the 50K word mark on Room For You, I wanted to pause and give a big THANK YOU to everyone who has read, commented, left kudos, reblogged, liked, sent me anons, etc. It means a lot that there are people out there who are enjoying this story of mine. There is still a lot more to come, and I’m particularly excited about what is coming next, so I hope you stick around.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The lacrosse game.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Content warning: references to homophobia, struggles with sexual identity, internalized biphobia]

Hans sat on a bench in the locker room as the other guys on the team were milling about and finishing getting ready for the game. 

He was fully suited up with his helmet on the bench next to him and his stick leaning up against the locker in front of him. But he couldn’t help himself from fiddling with his gear. Adjusting his shoulder pads. Checking and rechecking the laces on his cleats. Trying to keep himself busy. 

Hans kept glancing over at the closed door of Coach Mattias’s office. Coach had been calling in players one by one who still hadn’t had their final positions for the season confirmed. O’Malley was in there right now and Hans expected that he might be the next called in. 

Hans felt pretty sure he would be getting a starting position this year. But even if he did, he wasn’t sure _where_ he’d be starting. His hope of course was to be a starting midfielder. It was the toughest and most physically demanding position, but Hans knew he could handle it. 

“Hey man,” Ryder’s voice cut into his thoughts as he picked up Hans’s helmet off the bench and sat down next to him. 

Hans snatched his helmet back and put it down on the ground by his feet. Who just picks up someone else’s stuff like that? 

“Sorry,” Ryder said, slightly sarcastically. “Was just trying to say hi.”

“Some of us are trying to get ready for the game,” Hans snapped. 

“All of us are getting ready for the game,” Ryder rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, but not all of us are actually going to be playing in the game.” 

Ryder gave him a look. “Whatever man,” he said with a huff as he stood and walked off. 

Hans really wasn’t trying to be a dick but, _christ_ , Ryder really couldn’t tell when someone wanted to be left alone, could he? 

“Westergaard,” Coach Mattias called out. “Can I see you in my office please.”

Hans quickly stood and began walking over. You could never really tell by Coach Mattias’s tone if you were about to receive good news or bad news. But Hans saw O’Malley walking out of the office with a sour look on his face. Wonderful. Not just because Han enjoyed seeing him in a bad mood, but because O’Malley had been one of the starting midfielders _last_ year. Bad news for him could mean good news for Hans. 

“Take a seat, son,” Coach Mattias said, gesturing to the chair in the middle of his office as he walked around to the opposite side of his desk and sat down.

Hans closed the door behind him and sat. 

“So, Westergaard, how are you doing?”

“Good, sir.”

“Classes going well this semester?” 

“Yes, sir.”

Coach Mattias drummed his fingers on the desk as he regarded Hans for a moment. “Well, I’ll just get right to it then. I’m going to be starting you at midfielder this season.” 

Hans curled his toes in his cleats, focusing all of his energy there in order to keep himself from pumping his fist or jumping for joy. 

“Thank you, sir,” he said with a small nod. 

“Now, you’re only a sophomore, but I’m starting you in this position over some upperclassmen because, frankly, you’re one of the best players on this team. So, I need you on the field as much as possible.”

Hans felt pride swelling in his chest. 

“And when I say I need you on the field, I mean _on_ the field.” Coach Mattias gave him a stern look and pointed a finger at him. “That means you keeping that temper of yours in check. Can’t have you sitting on the sidelines serving penalties for fouls. Do you understand?”

“Yes, sir.” Hans nodded. He only ever fouled opponents who deserved it. Wasn’t his fault that so many ended up deserving it. 

“Good,” he said, lowering his hand. “That fire is what makes you a great player, son. You just need to focus it properly.” Coach Mattias sat back in his chair a bit and his expression relaxed. “Anything else you would like to discuss while you’re here?”

“No, sir.” He shook his head. 

Hans already hadn’t planned on telling Coach Mattias about the _comments_ O’Malley and some of the other guys would make. And now? When Hans had just gotten exactly what he had worked so hard for? No, he definitely wasn’t going to say anything now. Why cause trouble? Why risk what he had just earned by looking like some complainer? Risk looking weak? 

“Ok, just know my door is always open.” Coach Mattias motioned towards the door. “You’re dismissed.” 

“Thank you, sir,” Hans said as he stood and left.

O’Malley was glaring at him as Hans walked out of Coach’s office. But Hans just gave him a smirk in return. The guy could call him a cocksucker all he wanted, but _this_ cocksucker just replaced him in the starting lineup. 

{ ~ }

Kristoff had never seen a lacrosse game before. He had also never attended a sporting event, of any kind, for one of AU’s teams before. So, mark down two more firsts in his life that came as a result of knowing Anna and Hans. 

The benches for both teams were on one side of the field and the stands for the crowd were on the other. The stands were pretty full already. Kristoff wasn’t sure if this was a normal crowd for a lacrosse game or if it was just because it was the season opener combined with it being a nice day. 

They couldn’t find a spot in the stands that fit four across so they sat two and two - Anna and Elsa in one row and Kristoff and Maren sitting directly behind them. 

Kristoff scanned the field as the players warmed up, trying to spot either Hans or Ryder. The home team was wearing white jerseys and the numbers and lettering were in Arendelle green and purple. The opposing team had bright blue jerseys on. 

But the jerseys only had numbers on the back, no names. The players also had helmets on and with the face masks it was hard to make out who was who. 

Kristoff leaned forward towards Anna. “You know their numbers?” he asked her. 

“Yep,” she said, “Ryder is number 34 and Hans is 13.” 

Thirteen. Right. Kristoff had thought it was a joke when Hans first said it, but he really did have twelve older brothers. Kristoff wondered if any of them played lacrosse too. There would have been enough of them to form two whole teams for games in the backyard. 

That must have been nice, Kristoff thought, growing up in a big family like that. Always someone around to play with. 

His attention was brought back to the field as the game began. Ryder was over on the sidelines but Hans was right near the center of the field - knees bent, bouncing lightly on his toes, ready to go. 

The ball got loose just a few seconds after the initial face off and Hans was on it right away, scooping it up in his stick and sprinting up the field. A defender from the other team tried to stop him, but Hans did a quick stutter step and spin and left the guy in his dust. As he got near the goal he reared back his stick and then whipped it forward. 

The net swooshed and the crowd cheered. And just like that, Arendelle U was off to a quick 1-0 lead. 

“Wow,” Kristoff said, impressed. 

“Yeah,” Maren agreed. “So, how much do you know about lacrosse?”

“Absolutely nothing,” Kristoff answered with a small laugh. “You?”

“I’ve been watching Ryder play for years, so quite a bit.”

“Great,” Kristoff said with a smile. “Then you can teach me.”

Kristoff had always been terrible at holding conversations, but sports had a way of making things easier. Nothing to talk about? Just talk about the game. Or, just simply watch the game and not have worry about the break in the conversation being an awkward silence. 

So, as the game went on Kristoff asked questions and Maren explained both the basics and the finer points of the sport. They joked and laughed a bit too. It was nice. 

One thing Kristoff learned pretty quickly was that lacosse sticks weren’t just for passing the ball back and forth. They were also, apparently, for whacking the shit of the players on the other team. In fact, lacrosse was a much more violent sport than Kristoff would have originally thought. 

He also got a run down of what the different positions were. There were goalies, obviously. Then defenders who played defensive (duh) and attackers who played offense. Players in those positions stayed put at their assigned goals. Midfielders, on the other hand, followed the action wherever it went, playing offense when the ball was down near the opponents goal and defensive when it was over near their own team’s goal. 

Hans, it seemed, was a midfielder. Running up and down the field over and over again, perpetually in motion the entire game. It looked exhausting. Hans was probably running more miles in just this game than Kristoff had in years. 

And he was actually pretty good. Not that Kristoff had expected Hans to _not_ be good, he just wasn’t expecting him to be best-player-on-the-field good. 

As they neared the end of the first half the score was 2-1 AU, and Hans had scored both of the goals for his team. He had also made some great plays on defense to help keep the other team from scoring. 

Hans was playing defense right now actually. The action was down at AU’s goal and players on the opposing team were passing the ball around, trying to find an opening to score. But, as a player on the opposing team went to make a pass, Hans leapt up and snatched the ball right out of the air. Interception! A cheer went up in the crowd and Kristoff let out a _‘WOO!’_

Hans and players from both teams began sprinting back up to the other side of the field. Opposing players were right on his heels, whacking at him with their sticks to try to get the ball back. But Hans managed to pass the ball to a teammate that had gotten himself positioned right next to the goal. The teammate quickly whipped the ball into the net as soon as he caught it. 

But just as he did Kristoff saw a flash of blue, a defensive player from the opposing team running full speed at Hans. The guy was holding his stick out horizontally in front of his body like a battering ram. 

Hans had his head turned, looking in the direction of where he had just passed the ball, so he didn’t see the guy coming. He had no chance to block or brace for impact as the opposing player came barreling into him from the side. Hans hit the ground, hard. 

Anna gasped and there was a low _‘oh’_ from the crowd. 

Kristoff sat up straighter. “The fuck? Can that guy just _do_ that? Hans didn’t even have the ball.”

“No,” Maren shook her head, “that’s not a legal hit. He should get a penalty for that. But, it doesn’t look like the refs saw it. Their attention must have been on the play at the goal.”

Hans got back on his feet and didn’t seem too worse for wear. But Kristoff made a mental note of the jersey number of the guy who hit him - number 53. 

~

As the second half of the game got underway it was as if Hans had a target on his back. Extra hard whacks from oppointets, double coverage to keep him from getting passed the ball. Not to mention more bullshit late hits, mostly still coming from number 53. Hans seemed to be more aware of the incoming fire now and was able to avoid the late hits, or at least keep his footing when he did get hit.

“Am I imagining things or do they have it out for him?” Kristoff asked, leaning over to Maren. 

“No, you’re not imagining it. They’re gunning for him for sure.”

He scowled. “What the fuck?”

She shrugged. “He’s the best player on the team. That’s just what happens.”

Kristoff watched as a similar play to the one from the end of the first half began to unfold. Hans running up the field with the ball and passing it to a teammate near the goal. He felt the muscles in his arms tighten as he saw number 53 from the other team headed right for Hans again at full speed. 

But this time he was running at him from the front and Hans definitely saw him. Kristoff assumed that Hans would try to turn or slow down, anything to avoid the impact. Instead, Hans sped up, dropped his shoulder, and aimed right for number 53. 

There was _SMACK_ of the pads and helmets and sticks making contact followed by a loud _‘OHH’_ from the crowd. Number 53’s feet left the ground and then he landed hard on his back. 

“Holy shit,” Kristoff said, a bit louder than he intended. He didn’t know Hans had that in him. 

“Holy shit is right,” Maren laughed. “He really laid that guy out.” 

Hans was already casually walking to the sidelines by the time the referee was throwing a flag and calling him on a foul. Number 53, on the other hand, needed some help getting up. 

~

The game ended with a score of 4-2, a victory for Arendelle. 

As Kristoff, Anna, Elsa, and Maren descended the stands, he saw Ryder jogging across the field towards them. He hadn’t played at all in the game, but he still seemed to be in a chipper mood. 

“Hey guys,” Ryder said to everyone with a wide smile. Then he turned to Kristoff. “Pizza man! Glad you could make it.”

As the five of them talked, Kristoff looked out across the field wondering where Hans was. He spotted him lingering near his team’s bench, occasionally glancing over at them. Kristoff wondered why for a moment before realizing. It was because of Elsa. He still didn’t know what the whole story was there. Was it really so bad that Hans couldn’t even come over to talk? 

But Kristoff didn’t want him to think they were ignoring him. Besides, he wanted to talk to Hans, congratulate him on the good game. 

Kristoff leaned in close to Anna to whisper in her ear, “I’m going to walk up the field a bit to go say hi to our friend.”

Anna looked across the field at Hans. “Good idea.” She gave Kristoff a pat on the arm. “I’ll join you in a minute.”

Kristoff began to walk up the length of the field. Hans seemed to notice and also began to walk in the direction that Kristoff was aiming for. When Kristoff got to the other end of the stands, he glanced back over his shoulder to make sure there was a good enough distance between him and the group. There was, so he stopped and turned to face out towards the field. 

Hans was jogging towards him. He unsnapped his chin strap as he got closer and pulled off his helmet, eventually slowing to a stop directly in front of Kristoff. 

“Hey man,” Hans said with an easy smile. His voice was slightly hoarse and his breathing was heavy. 

Kristoff felt his whole body still as a wave of heat rolled down his spine. 

Every time that Kristoff had ever seen Hans before now he was so perfectly, almost annoyingly, put together. He always wore nice clothes regardless of if he was going out to a party or just going to class. And there was never a hair out of place on his head, even when buzzed near the end of a night out or hung over in the library. 

But the Hans he saw right now looked completely different. 

His white jersey and shorts were covered in dirt and grass stains. There was a bad scrape on one of his knees and a thin trail of blood running down his shin. His cleats were totally caked in mud and there was even a small chunk of turf caught in the corner of the face mask of his helmet. 

His hair was a mess. It was completely drenched in sweat which made it look darker in color - more rusty than red. There were pieces flopping forward into his face and other parts of it were either matted down or sticking straight up from being inside the helmet. 

Hans was still flushed from the exertion of the game, the red of his face contrasting with his eyes and making them look even greener than normal. 

There was also sweat running down his face. He wiped the back of his hand across his forehead, but he was still wearing his game gloves and a streak of dirt appeared across his temple as his hand dropped away. 

Kristoff felt a strange urge to reach up and wipe the dirt away with his thumb. 

“Kristoff? You ok?” 

He blinked and focused back on Hans’s eyes. He was giving Kristoff a quizzical look. Shit, had he just been staring at Hans this whole time?

He cleared his throat. “Yeah, yeah. I’m-, I’m good.” 

“Ok.” Hans didn’t seem entirely convinced. “You enjoy the game?”

“ _Yeah._ You were great.” Kristoff internally winced. He stuck his hands in his pockets and felt his shoulder hunch as he continued on. “The whole team was great. Your whole team. Obviously. You guys won.” 

Hans didn’t say anything in response, but he was watching Kristoff intently. It looked as if Hans was about to say something but then Anna came bounding up to them. 

“Hans! You were amazing! I-, oh,” she retracted her outstretched arms as she looked at him, “I was going to hug you but-,”

“No, I get it.” Hans looked down at himself. “I’m a gross mess right now.” 

“You did so good! But, oh my god,” Anna put her hands on her hips, “That jerk on the other team who hit you. You want me to go beat him up for you?”

Hans laughed. “Yeah, could you?”

Anna jokingly pounded her fist into the palm of her other hand a few times. 

“Well, I got to go hit the showers,” Hans said motioning over his shoulder in the direction of the athletic center. 

Kristoff’s hands tightened into fists in his pockets. 

“Right, of course,” Anna said. “Don’t let us keep you.” 

The three of them said their goodbyes then and Hans jogged off. 

Anna took Kristoff’s hand, interlacing their fingers. “Walk me back to my dorm?”

He smiled at her. “Of course.” 

~ 

Kristoff sighed and blinked his eyes a couple of times. They were beginning to grow weary from the computer screen. As soon as Kristoff had gotten back from the game that afternoon he had headed straight for his desk to get some school work done. 

He checked the time. After 8pm already. Jeez, had he really been sitting here working for that long? He had blown right past dinner time. But, he wasn’t very hungry anyway. 

He felt kind of gross from sitting out in the sun for a few hours today. Plus all the muscles in his shoulders and back felt really tight for some reason. A shower would do him good. 

Kristoff let out a low sigh as he stepped under the warm water. It hit against his back and flowed down over his shoulders. He closed his eyes and took some deep breaths. Slowly, Kristoff began to feel his muscles relax. 

He dipped his head back into the stream of water, allowing his hair to get wet. 

Then his mind began to wander. 

It had been windy at the game today and it had caused Anna’s hair to whip around wildly. She had turned back to talk to him at one point late in the game. As she was in the middle of saying something a gust of wind blew a big chunk of her hair right into her face. Anna had laughed, smiling wide and eyes bright as she pushed it all back out of her face. 

He always loved it when her hair got wild like that. It would be that way on Saturday morning when they woke up next to each other. It would also get that way from their Friday night activities. He would let his fingers tangle in it and she would look at him with those eyes. _God_ , those aqua eyes of hers always killed him. 

Kristoff reached down between his legs and began to move his hand in slow steady strokes. 

_Anna._

_Anna riding him. Aqua eyes, hooded and staring down at him. Her wild red hair falling down over her bare, freckled shoulders._

_Her breath quickening as she builds closer and closer to her climax. The incredible tightness around him as she reaches it._

_Kristoff rolling her over. Kissing her all over her face and neck._

_Anna underneath him, moaning and arching her back as he fucks her._

_Her red hair damp with sweat. Her face flushed deeply and her breathing heavy._

Kristoff braced a hand against the wall of the shower as his other hand quickened it’s pace. 

_Red hair dark with sweat and flushed cheeks and heavy breaths and shining green eyes._

_Kristoff running his hand roughly through that hair to mess it up, making it look just like it did after the game._

_What kind of things would Kristoff have to do to him to work him up into a state like that? All sweaty and flushed and breathing heavy. Hans looking like that under Kristoff’s hands, under Kristoff’s body._

_That smug smirk falling away into an open mouthed gasp. How Kristoff’s name would sound coming out of that mouth. That mouth of his. Those lips of his._

_What would it be like to press the head of his cock past the lips of that smart mouth?_

Kristoff let out a moan as he came and the movements of his hand and arm slowed to a stop. 

His eyes blinked open at the realization of what he had just done 

Kristoff fumbled for the knob of the shower with shaking hands, turning it to the coldest setting possible. He gasped, his breath stolen from his body as the freezing cold water hit him. The instinct to move away was strong, but Kristoff forced his head under the stream from the shower head - a stupid and futile attempt to erase the images from his mind. 

~

Kristoff flopped back onto his bed hard. He picked up one of his pillows and covered his face with it. 

“ **Fuuuck**!” he screamed into it as loud as he could before throwing it down onto the ground beside the bed. 

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. 

While lying to himself about this kind of thing had become second nature to him, Kristoff couldn’t deny that that had happened before. Never Hans specifically though, at least not until now. But thinking about another man in a moment like that? Yeah. Not in a while, but yeah. 

But he didn’t _need_ that. He knew he didn’t. He could get himself off only thinking about women. He could have amazing, fulfilling sex with women. He had had a girlfriend once and, while things hadn’t worked out between them, Kristoff knew that his feelings for her had been real. 

So then what was wrong with him? Why weren’t women enough? Why was he selfishly wanting something more? Why did this _thing_ keep gnawing away at the edges of his consciousness?

And, fuck, why _Hans_? Hans was supposed to be someone who he could maybe talk to about all this, someone who could maybe help him. But, shit, how was he ever going to get the words out now?

Kristoff groaned as he roughly ran his hands over his face. He needed to get this shit together. 

{ ~ }

Hans laid in his bed that night, staring up at the ceiling in the dark. His body was exhausted from the game. Feet tired, muscles achy. Not to mention a bruise already forming on his upper arm because of that dirty hit from that asshole on the other team. 

Sleep was alluding him though. He kept thinking about after the game and Kristoff and the way he was just _looking_ at him. 

Kristoff had never looked at him like that before. His eyes had been wide and there had been a heat in his gaze. It had completely thrown Hans at first. The heat had quickly faded into awkwardness, all hunched shoulders and hands in pockets. But still, it had been there. 

Was Kristoff…

Hans had never picked up any hints before today. He had always thought he was pretty good at detecting that sort of thing. But he remembered what Anna had said about Kristoff, way back when she was first trying to get in bed with him. _‘He’s a hard nut to crack.’_

Ok. Wild hypotheticals. _What if_ Kristoff was not straight? And _what if_ Kristoff was into him? What would Hans do with that? 

He had joked with Anna about Kristoff being boring in bed. But Hans knew she wouldn’t keep hooking up with the guy week after week unless there was _something_ there. 

When Hans had first met him, Kristoff seemed to do nothing but scowl and frown. But now his smiles came easier. And even though they were dopey and lopsided, Hans had to admit that there was something endearing about those smiles. 

Then there was the way he had looked in that undershirt of his. All broad shoulders and big biceps. Hans had never been with a guy that was _that_ much bigger than him before. But there was definitely a certain appeal in thinking about all the things those muscles could do. 

And of course there were those hands of his. 

Hans let out a frustrated groan. 

Was this stupid to even be thinking about? Hooking up with a guy who was already hooking up with the girl he himself was also already hooking up with? That could get real messy, real quick. 

It would be pretty clever though. How many people could say they got assigned to a class project with two random strangers and then ended up beding both of them?

Well. Anna could, he supposed. And technically, if him and Kristoff did hook up then Kristoff could too. But! Hans would be the only one knowing everything that was going on. So, he’d still be the most clever. 

Would it be a bad thing to do though? Like, morally? No, right? Anna and Kristoff have clearly established a non-exclusive relationship. They’re ok with each other sleeping with other people. It shouldn’t matter if one of those other people for each of them happened to be the same person. Besides, why does Anna get to be the only one who gets to have a little extra fun?

But these were all still wild hypotheticals. 

Maybe Kristoff wasn’t being awkward for _that_ reason. Maybe he was just being awkward in a general way. Kristoff had always been a pretty awkward dude. 

Or maybe Kristoff was just a bit out of it from sitting out in the sun all afternoon. Or maybe _he_ was the one that had been a bit out of it; he did get his bell rung pretty good in the game. 

But maybe, and most likely, Hans was just once again only thinking with his dick. Allowing wishful thinking to let him see things that weren’t actually there. Because this was fucking _Kristoff_ we were talking about here. No, he was almost definitely straight. 

Hans closed his eyes and rolled over. 

A very subtle testing of the waters probably wouldn’t hurt though.


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang goes to The Trading Post - Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter started to get a bit long, so I'm splitting it in two.

“You know, you could always ask first,” Kristoff called over to Hans who was standing in the kitchen. 

“What? This?” He held up the water bottle that he had just taken out of the fridge. 

“Yes. That.”

“Ok. May I _please_ have a water bottle?” Hans added a bit of mocking flair to his tone and held his arms out in dramatic fashion. 

“You may,” Kristoff responded with a small nod. 

Hans huffed as he walked back into the living room and sat down cross legged on the couch. “What’s the point of making me ask if you’re just going to say yes, anyway?”

“It’s polite.”

“ _It’s polite_ ,” Hans said back, imitating Kristoff’s voice. Anna giggled at that. 

Kristoff was committed to not being awkward around Hans tonight. They were friends, just friends, and he needed to put any other thoughts out of his mind. Hans was always one for teasing both him and Anna. So, if that’s how Hans acted around people he saw as just friends, then that’s how Kristoff was going to act too. 

“So, what is the plan for tonight?” Kristoff asked the group. 

Anna looked up at him from her normal spot on the floor in front of the coffee table. “Didn’t you read the group text?” 

“I…,” he scrunched up his nose, “skimmed it?”

She narrowed her eyes at him. 

“Oh, come _on_. You guys text way too much, I can’t keep up.”

Anna went to say something more but Hans cut in, saving Kristoff from any further grilling. “We’re going to The Trading Post.”

“The bar?” Kristoff asked. 

“Yeah,” Anna said. “You like it there?”

“I don’t know, I’ve never been.”

Hans gave him a look. “How have you never been to The Trading Post? It’s only two blocks away from here.”

Kristoff shrugged. “I've just never had a reason to go.” Something clicked in his head then. “Wait, how have you guys been there?”

“What do you mean _how_?” Hans asked. 

“Um, eighteen,” he pointed at Anna, “nineteen,” he pointed at Hans. “How do you two get into a bar?”

“Kristoff,” Anna said slowly, “It’s called a fake ID.”

“You guys have _fake IDs_?” he asked, trying not to sound too judgemental. 

“Oh no, Anna!” Hans stood up suddenly “He’s been an undercover cop this whole time! Run!”

Anna laughed as Hans began jogging in place as if he were running off. 

Kristoff rolled his eyes. He reached up and grabbed Hans’s elbow, giving it a tug. “Sit _down_.”

Hans flopped back down on the couch and smiled at Kristoff. “Seriously, how many Friday nights in a row have you been drinking with us? And now suddenly you’re going to get sanctimonious about us being under twenty-one?” 

“Alright, alright,” Kristoff conceded the point. “But show me these fake IDs. I want to see just how bad of an idea this is.”

Hans sighed as he pulled out his wallet and handed over his first.

“Morten Westergaard,” Kristoff said, reading off the ID.

“One of my brothers.”

The man in the picture had the same red hair as Hans, but he wasn’t as handsome and he seemed a bit heavier and broader. 

“He gave it to you?”

“No, I stole it out of his wallet,” Hans said nonchalantly, as if stealing someone else’s government issued ID wasn’t probably a crime. 

Kristoff went to hand it back but then stopped. “Wait, this lists a height of six foot one.”

“So?” Hans sounded a bit defensive. “That’s not so far off.” 

Kristoff raised an eyebrow at him. 

“Oh, fuck off.” He said as he reached out and snatched the ID back.

Kristoff laughed and Hans gave him a sideways glare as he put the ID back in his wallet, but there was a hint of a smile on his face. 

“Ok, your turn,” Kristoff said, looking at Anna. “And please tell me it’s not one of Elsa’s old ones.” 

“No, I actually _bought_ mine instead of stealing it,” she said, giving Hans a sharp look as she handed the ID over to Kristoff. 

Kristoff sighed as he looked at it. “Anna, the girl in this picture has brown hair.”

“It’s… reddish brown. And, whatever, it’s always worked for me before. Give it back.” She made a _gimme_ motion with her hand.

Kristoff handed it back. “Do we have a back up plan in case the guy checking IDs at the door has, you know, eyes?” 

Hans kicked at Kristoff’s leg from across the couch. “Stop being so uptight. It’s going to be fine. If they didn’t let in college kids with fake IDs then they’d never make any money.”

“Sounds like a top notch establishment,” Kristoff said sarcastically. 

“It's _great_ actually,” Anna said with confidence, but then her facial expression changed. “Just don’t order any of the food.”

“Oh yeah,” Hans said with a cringe. “The food there is bad news.”

“Yep. One night last semester Ryder ate a whole order of wings on his own, puked in a bush on the way back to campus.” 

Kristoff rubbed his forehead wondering what exactly the two of them were getting him into. 

~

Kristoff finished buttoning up the shirt that Anna and Hans had picked out for him and walked over to his desk. He went to reach for his old leather jacket, which was hung up over the back of his chair, but then hesitated. 

He walked to the doorway and looked out into the living room. “It’s kinda warm tonight right? Probably don’t need my jacket?”

“Yeah, I’m not wearing a jacket,” Hans said as he pulled his shoes on. 

“It’s humid,” Anna called out from the bathroom where she was touching up her makeup. “I think it’s supposed to rain later.”

Hans made a face. “It’s not going to rain. There haven’t been any clouds in the sky all day.”

Rain or no rain, the bar was only two blocks away. No need for his jacket tonight. 

~

Hans and Anna’s IDs actually worked without issue. The doorman barely even took a second look as he waved them in. 

The three of them walked into a packed room. Over on one side we’re big groups of people and some high top tables. On the other side there was a long bar with lots of people crowded around trying to get the attention of the bartenders. 

“I’ll get the first round,” Hans said and headed over. 

Kristoff looked around as they waited. 

The walls were covered in wood paneling. Over that were neon beer signs, sports memorabilia, and Arendelle University banners. The place was a bit dingy and looked like nothing had changed in a long time. You could probably go back in time twenty or thirty years and the only thing that would look different in this place would be the fashions worn by the students inside. 

Once Hans returned with their beers they moved through the crowd to the back room. 

There were many more people in this room, but it was a much larger space so it didn’t feel as crowded. This whole place was way bigger on the inside then what he would have assumed from all the times he’s walked past it on his way to campus. 

Over on one side there was a small stage and some mics set up, but nobody was up there using it. Elsewhere there were a couple of pool tables, some dart boards, and what looked like tables set up for beer pong. 

The walls were decorated much like the front room. It had a relaxed, comfortable feel. The music playing over the speakers seemed to fall more to the rock and country side of things as opposed to the pop and dance that would usually be playing at the parties they’d go to. Kristoff was thankful for that. 

There were some tables and chairs in one part of the room. The three of them were able to find an empty one and settled in. 

“A toast!” Anna said, holding up her beer bottle. 

“What are we toasting to?” Hans asked, slightly amused. 

Anna thought about it for a second before pointing her bottle in Kristoff’s direction. “To Kristoff’s first time at The Trading Point.”

Bit of a silly thing to toast to, Kristoff thought. But the three of them raised their bottles to _clink_ and then drink. 

“And!” She added after taking her drink. “To Hans, for being so great in his game this week.” 

“Here, here,” Kristoff said in agreement, lifting his bottle again. 

Hans seemed slightly embarrassed by that, but he lifted his bottle anyway and they all _clinked_ and drank again. 

“And to Anna,” Hans said, keeping his bottle raised. 

“Yes!” Kristoff said quickly. 

“For…”

“For…”

The two of them stared blankly at each other hoping the other would be able to think of something. 

Anna rolled her eyes and her shoulder sagged. “Guys, it’s fine.” 

_Shit_ , no, they had to think of something. 

“For... being the reason we’re here,” Kristoff said finally. 

“Here?” she sounded confused. “Like at The Trading Post?”

“No, I mean _us_ ,” he gestured in a circle to the three of them. “You’re the reason we’re all friends.” 

Kristoff thought that was a pretty obvious thing, but Anna seemed taken aback. She opened and closed her mouth and then looked over at Hans who nodded in agreement. 

A smile slowly spread across her face. “Well, I’m glad we’re friends,” Anna said, sounding genuinely touched. 

“Me too,” Hans said, looking first at Anna and then over to Kristoff.

Kristoff held his gaze for a moment. “Me too.” 

They all toasted for the third time, clink, and drank again. 

{ ~ }

Hans was doing his best to not overanalyze everything Kristoff did tonight. Every look, every smile, every bit of teasing and joking. The way he had grabbed Hans by the elbow back in the apartment. Because that was just Kristoff being friendly, right? Guys being dudes and all that. No, Kristoff wouldn’t openly flirt with him like that in front of Anna. 

As the current song ended there was the familiar _click click_ over the speakers. 

Kristoff looked up confused. “What was that noise?”

“Someone is about to do karaoke,” Anna said. 

He looked over to the other side of the room. “Oh yeah, I was wondering what that stage was about. But why do the speakers make that noise?” 

“The karaoke is on a different sound system from the regular music they play,” Anna explained. “So, when someone is about to do a song you hear that _click click_ over the speakers as they switch over to the karaoke system.” 

“You don’t even notice it after a while,” Hans added. 

“Kristoff,” Anna smiled wide and put her hand on his forearm, “We should do a song together.”

“Ah, no. I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“No, come on, it’ll be fun.”

“I don’t-, it’s-,” he shook his head and picked at the label of his beer bottle, “There are a lot of people here.”

“What if I let you pick the song?”

Kristoff just cringed. 

Hans had to hold himself back from sighing as he watched their back and forth. See, this is why Kristoff was so hard to read sometimes. There were things about him that were still so completely baffling to Hans. Things like this, like Kristoff’s instant defaulting to ‘no’ on so many things. 

It was like last weekend when Anna wanted to dance with him at the party and Kristoff turned her down. How on earth do you say no to dancing with Anna? 

Hans had wanted to jump in and offer to dance with her. But, he wasn’t sure how much he’d be able to keep his hands to himself on a dance floor with her. And he knew Anna wouldn’t want the two of them to do anything too obvious in front of Kristoff. Luckily Eric had stepped in and offered to dance with her instead. 

But, karaoke wasn’t the same as dancing. There was more than one mic up there, they could keep their distance on the stage. Plus, he could see a bit of disappointment on Anna’s face as she was beginning to realize she wasn’t going to be able to talk Kristoff into doing it. 

“I’ll do it with you,” Hans cut in. 

Anna looked over at him. “You will?”

“Yeah, karaoke is fun,” he smiled at her. 

“Perfect,” Kristoff seemed relieved. 

{ ~ }

__

_"Let's go all the way tonight,  
No regrets, just love"_

Kristoff leaned back in his chair as he watched Anna and Hans up on the stage. They were singing a pop song that he remembered always being on the radio some years back, but couldn’t remember the name of it or the singer.

__

_"We can dance until we die,  
You and I,  
We'll be young forever"_

They each had their own mics as they sang and danced. Anna was being silly with her dancing, wide arm movements and flipping her hair back and forth. She clutched the mic tightly and sang loudly.

It was a bit amazing to Kristoff sometimes, how little fear Anna had when it came to things like this. That she could just be up there, up in front of a big room of strangers, singing and dancing wildly as if she were dancing alone in her room. 

__

_"You make me feel like I'm living a teenage dream,  
The way you turn me on"_

Hans had that lack of fear too. He was a couple of years younger than Kristoff, but he was out and seemingly had been for a while now. And was so open about it too, and not giving a fuck what anyone thought about it. How does someone get to a place like that?

Hans was dancing as well, over on his side of the stage. Not in as exaggerated movements as Anna was, but still far more than Kristoff would ever be brave enough to do. He watched as Hans smiled and tossed his head back and forth as he sang. Watched the lines and angles of his body as he moved and swayed his hips to the music. 

Kristoff clenched his jaw. He needed to get that shit under control. 

__

_"My, heart, stops,  
When you look at me,  
Just, one, touch,  
Now baby I believe"_

It’s not like Hans would be interested in him back. There had only been two guys that Kristoff had ever seen Hans with: the guy he was kissing at the delta party and Eric. Hans and Eric were both around the same height, and that guy at the delta party had been shorter than Hans. And when it came to appearances, both guys were also, well, just like Hans - really good looking, really in shape.

So, if Hans had a type when it came to guys, Kristoff knew he didn’t fit it. 

Besides, what was the point of all these _images_ that kept creeping into his mind - images of him and Hans. Thinking about anything like _that_? It was too much, too far. He wasn’t actually ready for that, was he? To actually… with another guy? Kristoff took another swig of his beer, finishing it off. 

__

_"This, is, real,  
So take a chance,  
And don't ever look back,  
Don't ever look back"  
_

No. He just needed someone to talk to. He needed someone who might understand.

Kristoff sighed. He needed another fucking drink.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up: The Trading Post - Part 2


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang goes to The Trading Post - Part 2

“How come you didn’t want to do karaoke before?” Hans asked him. The two of them were sitting at the table while Anna was up getting them their next round of drinks. 

“I-, uh,” Kristoff scratched at the table with his thumbnail. “It would just be way too embarrassing.” 

“I didn’t feel embarrassed.”

Kristoff looked up at him. “Well, I’m not like you.”

It looked like Hans was about to say something more, but Anna’s voice cut in. 

“Look who I found!” she said in a sing-songy tone. 

“Hey guys!” Ryder said as he and Anna both sat down at the table. 

“Hans,” Ryder gave him a small nod.

Hans returned the nod, “Ryder.”

He turned to Kristoff then. “Howya doing, Pizza Man?” 

Kristoff smiled at the nickname, “I’m good.”

“You know,” Hans said then, drumming his fingers on the table, “We should sign up for beer pong. There’s an even number of us so we can easily split up into teams.”

Anna’s eyes lit up. “That’s such a good idea.”

“I’ve never played before,” Kristoff said, a bit hesitant. 

“No worries, it’s an easy game,” Ryder assured him. 

They all stood and began to walk over to the beer pong area. 

“Teammates?” Kristoff asked Anna, softly placing a hand on the small of her back. 

“Oh, sorry,” Anna said, “Ryder and I are _always_ a team for beer pong. It’s like a tradition.”

“Dynamic duo!” Ryder exclaimed. The two of them did a fist bump and then opened their fists backwards while wiggling their fingers and imitating the sound of an explosion. 

Kristoff understood that. Anna always talked about how Ryder was her best friend, almost like family. He wasn’t jealous. Even if there _were_ something more there, that was what they had agreed to, right? Being free to see other people? 

Hans nudged him. “Looks like you’re stuck with me.”

“Sounds good,” Kristoff said as he looked down at him. “But this is another drinking game where you’ll need to explain all the rules to me.”

He smiled. “My pleasure.”

~

Hans and Kristoff were standing nearby watching as Anna and Ryder played their first game against another team. Kristoff was leaning a bit to the side so he could hear Hans over the music as he explained the rules.

Two teams of two. Two sets of ten cups set up in a pyramid-like formation at either end of a long rectangular table. The object of the game was to toss a ping pong ball across the table and into one of the opposing team’s cups. If you did, the cup got taken away and a player from the other team had to drink the beer that was in it. 

“Seems a bit unsanitary,” Kristoff noted.

“It's fine.” Hans assured him. “There are cups of water to dunk the balls in to clean them off.”

That wasn’t much comfort to Kirstoff as he remembered their dire warning about eating the food in this place. 

Hans explained the game further, about how each team got two shots each round - one for each player. And how whichever team lost all their cups first, lost the game. At the end of each game the losing team was out and the winning team got to stay at the table for another game. It was the responsibility of the new challenging team to buy the beer for the new game. So as long as a team kept winning not only did they get to keep playing, they got to keep drinking - for free. 

Not too complicated, he thought. Though, he had thought that about the rules of flip cup too. 

“Ok, so, if your team is really good and the other team is really bad, you might not even drink that much each game.”

“That’s true,” Hans said. “But the great thing about beer pong is you can play all night and just build a nice steady buzz.”

Playing all night required winning over and over though. And considering Kristoff had never played before, that seemed unlikely. 

~

Anna and Ryder won their first game which meant Kristoff and Hans now got to play against them. The two of them took a winning team selfie - very important according to Anna - as Kristoff and Hans brought the pitchers of beer over to the table for the new game. 

“You guys ready to get your butts kicked?” Anna asked as they set up the cups. 

“Oh?” Kristoff looked across the table at her with a smile. “Trash talking already?”

She gave him a wink in response. 

Since Anna and Ryder were the winners of the previous game, they got to go first. 

Anna started off the game, picking up one of the ping pong balls and tossing it across the table. The ball bounced off one cup but then landed in another. She raised her arm in celebrating. “Starting off strong!”

Kristoff picked up the cup, plucked the ball out, and drank. 

“It’s just one cup, Anna.” Hans pointed out. “Don’t get ahead of yourself.”

“Nah,” Anna flexed her muscles, “You should be scared of me, Westergaard.”

“I already am,” he mumbled and Kristoff snickered. 

Ryder took his shot then. The ball hit a few cups but ultimately bounced away from the table. Hans caught it before it hit the floor. 

“Shit,” Ryder’s shoulders sagged. 

“Don’t worry about it,” Anna assured him. 

Now it was their team’s turn. Kristoff took a deep breath as he picked up the ball. “Any advice?” he asked Hans. 

“Just aim and shoot.”

“Thanks,” he said sarcastically. But Kristoff focused in and did just that, aimed and shot. The ball hit the rim of a cup but then landed inside. He let out a sigh of relief. 

Hans picked up the other ball and casually took his shot as if it were nothing. _Plunk_ , it landed right in one of the cups. 

“Who should be scared of who?” Hans asked with a grin as Anna picked up the cup to drink. 

The game went on much like that the rest of the way. Jokes and trash talk going back and forth across the table. Anna, Ryder, and Kristoff were all making most of the shots they took but Hans was making every single shot he took. Kristoff was impressed, but not exactly surprised that this was yet another thing Hans was really good at. 

Eventually they got to a point where there were three cups left on Hans and Kristoff’s side of the table and only one cup left on Anna and Ryder’s side.

It was Kristoff’s turn to take a shot. As he picked up the ball he then saw Anna hovering behind the cup, holding her hands up and making a twinkling gesture with her fingers. 

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Distracting you so that you miss.”

Kristoff shook his head but then focused in and took his shot. _Plunk_ , it landed right in the last cup and Anna and Ryder both groaned in defeat. 

“Yes!” Hans pumped his fist. 

“Guess it didn’t work,” Kristoff said, giving Anna a playful smile. 

She stuck her tongue out at him but then smiled back. “Ok, winning team picture,” Anna said, taking out her phone. 

She made a _scooch closer_ motion with her hands and Hans stepped slightly closer to Kristoff. But just as Anna was taking the picture Hans lifted one hand and flipped up the middle finger. The motion caught Kristoff’s eye and he began to laugh. 

“ _Hans_ ,” Anna dropped her arms, “you ruined the picture.”

“No, I made it better.” 

{ ~ }

Ryder picked up the two drinks from the bar and walked back over to Anna. A beer for him and a vodka cranberry for her.

“Careful with that,” he said as he handed her drink to her. “You know what they say: liquor then beer you’re in the clear, but beer then liquor you get much sicker.”

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” she said dismissively as she took a sip. 

“I’m just saying, I remember last time I was the one that had to help you find your purse.” Anna had cried tears of joy when he had found it underneath a table. 

“Well, that’s why I’m wearing a crossbody purse tonight.” Anna gestured diagonally across herself. “Harder to lose.” 

“Let’s hope so.” Ryder said before looking across the room to where Kristoff and Hans were still playing beer pong. “I can’t believe they beat us.”

“I know, I didn’t think they’d be so good.”

Ryder watched the smile on her face as she looked over at them. “So, they’re your go-to Friday night companions now, huh?” 

“Yeah,” she said fondly. 

“And which one do you go home with?” he asked with a teasing smirk. 

Anna gave a whack on the arm. “Kristoff. Obviously.” 

“Oh _obviously_ ,” Ryder said mockingly. “As if you didn’t hook up with Hans that first weekend of the semester.” 

“That was,” Anna looked down and poked at the ice in her cup with the little straw that mixed drinks always came with. “That was just a one time thing. Hans and I are just friends now.”

Ryder hummed as he took a swig of his beer. “And why exactly do you _want_ to be friends with that guy?”

“Why do you ask that?” She furrowed her brow as she looked at him. “Do you not like him?”

“He’s...” Ryder wanted to choose his words carefully. “Just a bit prickly, I guess.” 

Or at least a bit of a prick. 

Anna nodded. “He can be a bit standoffish when you first meet him. But, trust me, he’s not actually the asshole he likes people to think he is.”

Ryder didn’t really understand why anyone would _like_ people to think they were an asshole. 

Anna always had a way of seeing the best in people. But, she also wasn’t one to put up with bullshit, especially from a guy. So, if she thought Hans was alright, then he probably was. 

{ ~ }

Not only had Kristoff and Hans beat Anna and Ryder, they also beat the next team they faced. They were on their third game now and were in the lead. It was their turn again and Kristoff picked up one of the balls, aimed, tossed, and _plunk_ landed it right in one of their opponent’s cups. 

“Nice.” Hans gave him a congratulatory pat on the shoulder before picking up the second ball for his own shot. “You’re actually really good at this.” 

Kristoff huffed. “Surprisingly.” 

His brows drew together. “Why do you say ‘surprisingly’?”

“Well, I suck at flip cup so I just figured drinking games weren’t my thing.” 

“That’s ok,” Hans said, his expression softening. “Not everyone can be good at all drinking games.”

“You seem to be,” Kristoff grumbled. 

“Yeah well...” Hans faced forward and tossed the ball. It landed in a cup with a _plunk_ and then he turned back to Kristoff with a smirk and a glint in his eyes. “Not everyone can be me.”

Kristoff felt that same roll of heat down his back that he felt out on the lacrosse field. He quickly turned his attention back to the table and watched as the other team took their shots. 

{ ~ }

When Hans first had the idea of _testing the waters_ with Kristoff, he hadn’t been sure when he would actually get the chance to do it. The only time he ever really spent around Kristoff was on Friday nights, and Hans couldn’t risk doing anything too obvious directly in front of Anna

Then, tonight, an opportunity arose when Ryder showed. It had been a roll of the dice, suggesting that they pair off for beer pong teams. But his bet that Anna would insist on teaming up with Ryder had paid off. And even luckier, Kristoff was actually pretty good at beer pong and the two of them kept on winning. 

“So you didn’t start at all last year?” Kristoff asked as they were setting up their cups for a new game. 

“No, I was only a freshman last year and Coach usually doesn’t start freshmen.”

“When you did play, was it at midfielder or some other position?” 

Hans glanced over at Kristoff as he poured beer into the cups. He didn’t realize he actually knew that much about lacrosse. “Sometimes midfielder, sometimes other positions. Midfielder is harder, but it’s what I prefer.”

“It definitely seems harder,” Kristoff nodded. “All that running back and forth. Having to play both offense and defense.” 

“Yeah, well, I guess you could say I’m versatile,” Hans said, putting some extra emphasis on the last word. 

Kristoff looked back at him with a blank expression before nodding and getting ready to make his first shot of the new game. 

Ok, swing and miss on that one. Kristoff was either totally straight or just so far in the closet that he didn’t know the double meaning of the word. Hans wasn’t going to let that deter him though. He didn’t know when he’d get this much one-on-one time with Kristoff again. 

They just had to keep on winning. 

{ ~ }

Anna noticed that Ryder seemed a bit distracted as they talked. 

“What do you keep looking at?” she asked as she went to turn and look in the direction of his eye line. 

“No, no, no,” Ryder said urgently. “Don’t turn around.”

“What’s going on?” Anna asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

His mouth twisted to the side before letting out a sigh. “Ok. There’s a girl over there who’s in one of my classes and I kinda have a huge crush on her.”

“ _Really?_ ” She excitedly went to turn around again but Ryder stopped her. 

“Don’t!”

Anna groaned in frustration. “Ok, well, stop looking and go talk to her.”

“Too scary,” he shook his head. “I’m just going to hope she comes over here.”

“She’s not going to come over to talk to you while you’re talking to me,” Anna said. “You need to go over to her.”

Ryder frowned, “Why are you always right?”

“Because I just am. Now go!”

“Fine,” Ryder said as he took another swig of his beer. “You good?” 

“Yeah,” she waved a hand dismissively, “I’ll go find Kristoff and Hans. Now go get her, tiger.” Anna gave him a pat on the arm.

Ryder laughed as he stood and headed off across the room. 

Anna smiled as she watched him walk off. She felt a little bad about lying to him earlier, about her and Hans. The two of them usually didn’t keep things from each other. But if she was asking Hans to keep this thing between them a secret then it was only right for her to do the same. Right?

She looked across the room and could see that Kristoff and Hans were still at the beer pong table. They made a pretty good team, huh? But how many games in a row could they really win? She’d just go over and hang out next to them until they were done. 

Anna tilted back her head to finish off her drink and then stood up. She felt a slight spinning sensation once she was on her feet, but caught herself. Ok, maybe no more vodka tonight. 

She decided to walk along the outer wall to avoid the big crowd in the middle of the room. But suddenly something went whizzing past her face, just a few inches in front of her nose. 

Anna froze in fear. She glanced over to the wall next to her to see a dart in the exact center of a dart board. She looked back in the other direction to see a girl standing there with eyes wide and a scared expression. She had bright blue eyes and hair that was as red as Anna’s own, but massively curly. 

“I promise I wasn’t aiming for you,” the girl said quickly.

“And with aim like _that_ ,” Anna pointed at the perfect bullseye, “I hope you never are.” 

That made the girl laugh and relax slightly.

Anna took the dart out of the board and walked it over to her. “I’m Anna,” she held out her hand.

The girl held out her own and shook it, “Merida.” 

“You here with some friends?” Anna asked, looking down at a row of shot glasses filled with what looked like whiskey that were lined up on a table next to her. 

“Nah, I just don’t want to have to keep going back over to the bar all night because then I lose my spot at the dart board.” Merida twirled the dart around in her fingers. “What about you?”

“Yeah, I’m here with my guys. They’re over playing beer pong.”

“Your _guys_?” Merida waggled her eyebrows. 

“Oh, it’s not like _that_ ,” Anna huffed out a small laugh and brought a hand up to her face, embarrassed. She hadn’t meant to refer to them that way. She must have had more of a buzz going than she thought. Anna bit her lip. “Ok, maybe it’s a little like that,” she added with a quiet giggle. 

Merida laughed along, and then craned her neck to look over in the direction of the beer pong area. “Regular sized red and venti blonde?” 

“Yep, that’s them.”

“They’re cute. Lucky you.” Merida looked back at her. “Well don’t let me keep you.”

Anna hesitated. Yes, she had been heading back over to Kristoff and Hans but this Merida seemed pretty cool. Anna didn’t know any girls that would just come to a bar all by themselves to drink whiskey and shoot darts. Maybe she’d let Kristoff and Hans have some guy time while she made a new friend. 

“Actually, can you teach me how you make a bullseye like that?”

“Of course. Want to take a shot,” Merida motioned down at the table, “before taking a shot?” she held up the dart. 

“Sure!” 

Merida picked up two shot glasses and handed one to Anna, “Cheers.”

“Cheers.” Anna tilted her head back and took the shot of whiskey. She shuddered as it burned all the way down. “Oh god,” she gasped. 

“You ok?” Merida asked, seemingly unaffected by her shot. 

“Yep,” Anna wheezed out, “Dart time.” 

{ ~ }

“Good one,” Hans said, giving Kristoff a pat on the shoulder after his ball landed in an opponent’s cup. Every shot Kristoff was making was earning him that same pat on the shoulder. 

“Basketball,” Hans said with confidence, “It was definitely basketball.”

“ _No_.” Kristoff was a bit exasperated at this point. Why wouldn’t Hans let this go? 

“What?” Hans took his shot, landing the ball perfectly in one of their opponent’s cups. “So not football, not baseball, not basketball. What about wrestling?”

Kristoff shook his head and laughed. “You can keep naming random sports all you want. The answer is going to keep being no.”

“I just _cannot_ believe you didn’t play any sports in high school or growing up. Like, _nothing_? 

“Why is that so hard to believe?” Kristoff wasn’t one for assigning people into categories, but he knew that despite his size he was always more nerd than jock. 

“I’m just saying,” Hans tapped the back of his hand against Kristoff’s bicep a few times, “what a waste.” 

Kristoff looked over at him, but Hans had turned his attention back to the game as their opponents were making their shots. He looked at Hans’s profile for a moment before turning forward as well. 

{ ~ }

At one point in the night Hans noticed Kristoff humming along to the song that was playing and bobbing his head slightly. 

__

_If you're gonna be a homebody  
We're gonna have a house party_

“You like this song?” he asked.

“Yeah,” he nodded, “it’s a good song.”

Hans smirked at him. “I probably shouldn’t be surprised that you like country music.”

Kristoff furrowed his brows. “What, you _don’t_?”

“No. Because I’m not a hick.”

“Excuse me, I’m not a _hick_. And for the record _this_ music,” Kristoff pointed skyward, “is way better than whatever that song was you and Anna we’re doing karaoke to before.”

Hans crossed his arms and feigned offense. “How dare you insult the great Katy Perry like that?”

Kristoff scoffed and took his shot, landing the ball in one of their opponent’s cups. “You really don’t like any country music? You can’t name a single country song that you like?”

“I can’t name a single country song. Period.”

“Oh come one. You can’t name _one_ country song? I don’t believe that.”

Of course he could, but it was fun to fuck with Kristoff like this. Hans pretended to think deeply, even tapping his finger against his chin. 

“Jolene?”

Kristoff rolled his head back. “Oh my god.”

“What? Is that not a good song?” Hans asked, goating Kristoff as he picked up a ball and made his own shot. 

“No, it’s obviously a good song. I just can’t believe _that’s_ the only one you know.”

“I even know some of the lyrics. _Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Joleeeeene_ ,” Hans sang as he tilted his head back and leaned into Kristoff a bit. “And that’s it, that’s all I know.” 

Kristoff laughed. “The only words to the song you know are the title of the song?”

“She says the title of the song a lot in the song, that’s not _my_ fault.” One of their opponents successfully made a shot, so Hans picked up the cup to drink. “And if the lyrics are so easy to remember then prove it and sing the next line.”

“Ok, ok,” Kristoff cleared his throat and then actually began to sing, “ _I'm begging of you please don't take my man._ ”

“Ha!” Hans said, pointing a finger at him. “I got you to sing!”

Kristoff groaned, but there was a wide smile on his face. He put a hand on Hans’s shoulder to shove him away. Though the hand lingered for a few seconds longer than normal, and even gave his shoulder a squeeze, before dropping away.

Hans wondered if he not only had a shot at this, but a shot at this _tonight_. 

{ ~ }

Kristoff had lost count of how many games he and Hans had won. He had also lost track of how many beers he had had. Hans had been right earlier in the night, this game could give you a nice steady buzz if you played long enough. Kristoff was feeling that now - a slight warmth in his cheeks and a hint of fuzziness in his brain. 

Hans made yet another perfect shot. Their opponents were now down to their last cup. 

Kristoff cheered and gave Hans a congratulatory pat on the back in between his shoulder blades. There was a moment of stillness and then, without thinking, Kristoff slowly let his hand slide lower down his back. He rubbed his thumb back and forth, enjoying the feeling. 

When he saw Hans glance up at him from the corner of his eye, the realization finally set in. Panic struck and Kristoff retracted his arm as quickly, but also as calmly, as possible and stuck his hands in his pockets. 

What the fuck was he doing? That was totally inappropriate to just touch Hans like that. Being buzzed wasn’t an excuse. Knowing Hans was into guys wasn’t an excuse. You don’t just _touch_ people like that. 

Kristoff looked away from the table and out across the crowded room, trying to take his mind off of it. “Haven’t seen Anna in a while,” he said. 

“It’s late. Maybe she already headed out for the night.” 

“What?” Kristoff’s head snapped back around to Hans. “No, she wouldn’t just _leave_. And she definitely wouldn’t leave without coming over to say goodbye.”

“She might if she were leaving _with_ somebody,” Hans said with a casual shrug. 

Kristoff’s heart sank. 

Something changed in Hans’s expression. “Would that be a problem? I thought you two weren’t serious.”

“No, no. I just…,” Kristoff looked back out across the crowd. 

It _was_ ok. It was what him and Anna had agreed to. Free to see other people. 

But... Fridays were _their_ night. Or, that’s what they had become at least. It was the only night the whole week that Kristoff got to be with Anna. The only night he got to fall asleep with her in his arms and wake up alongside her the next morning. The idea of missing out on that and having to wait a whole nother week...

His thoughts got interrupted by a loud _plunk_.

Kristoff looked down to see a ball sitting in the last cup on their side. “Does this mean we lost?” 

“No,” Hans said in a flat tone, “They only have one cup too, so we get one more shot. We make it, we tie. We miss it, we lose.” 

Kristoff picked up the ball and handed it to him. “Well, if our asses are on the line, you should be the one to make the shot.”

Hans looked down at the ball in his hand, turning it over a few times. Then he looked up and took his shot. The ball not only missed the cup but sailed clear past the end of the table. 

“I-, what?” Kristoff couldn’t believe it. 

“Welp, that’s that I guess,” Hans said, sticking his hands in his pockets. “You can go find Anna now.”

Before Kristoff could say anything else Hans was turning around and walking off. He gave the winning team a quick ‘good game’ nod before following after him. 

“You missed that shot on purpose, didn’t you?”

“Why would I do that?” Hans responded without stopping or looking back. 

Why _would_ he do that? It didn’t make sense. 

Hans stopped suddenly and Kristoff nearly ran right into him. 

“I found Anna,” he said, pointing.

Kristoff quickly turned to look where Hans was pointing. Across the room and up on the stage was Anna singing karaoke. There was a girl with wild, curly hair up there with her.

__

_Ooh, baby, do you know what that's worth?  
Ooh, heaven is a place on earth_

He felt relieved. But then Kristoff noticed that Anna was stumbling a bit and some of the words she was singing were slurred.

__

_They say in heaven love comes first  
We'll make heaven a place on earth_

“Is she…”

“Yeah,” Hans said with a small laugh, “she’s wasted right now.” 

__

_In this world we're just beginning  
To understand the miracle of living_

She stubbled again as she went to dance, but actually fell down this time.

“Shit,” Kristoff mumbled. “Come on, let’s go get her.”

“Yeah,” Hans agreed and the two began to walk across the room. 

__

_Baby, I was afraid before  
But I'm not afraid-_

Anna didn’t finish the lyric, instead devolving into a fit of laughter.

As they got over to the stage, Kristoff saw the girl with curly red hair helping Anna down the steps on the side of the stage. 

“Oh, thank goodness!” She said as they approached, looking at them as if she knew them. “Anna’s boyfriends.” 

Hans blanched. “I-, _what?_ ” 

Kristoff didn’t have time to react as Anna launched herself at him. “Krist’f! This is Merida, m’new bist friend.” 

“Sorry,” Merida cringed, “guess I have a higher tolerance for whiskey than she does.” 

Whisky. Wonderful. 

“Ok, I think it’s time to go home, Anna,” Kristoff put an arm around her to help steady her.

“Nooo,” Anna frowned “I w’nted t’show you, Merida taught me darts.”

“No one is letting you throw a dart right now,” Hans said. 

“She’s actually pretty good.” Merida looked back and forth between Kristoff and Hans. “Buuuut, _yes_ , it probably would be best if she showed you some other time. Bye Anna,” Merida said with a wave. “Sorry about the hangover you’re going to have tomorrow.”

“Byeeee!” Anna called out to Merida as Kristoff and Hans began to walk her to the front of the bar. “I love youuuuuu!” 

They each had an arm around her as they helped her out the front door of The Trading Post. Anna stubbled on a crack in the sidewalk and nearly fell over in Hans’s direction, but he caught her. 

“Those stupid heels of yours, Anna,” Hans laughed as he righted her and handed her off to Kristoff. 

“Krist’f leeks ‘em,” Anna slurred as she wrapped her arms around Kristoff’s middle and leaned all her weight into him. 

“You taking her back to your place?” Hans asked, thankfully not acknowledging Anna’s comment regarding his preferences for her footwear. 

“Yeah, I think that’s for the best. Let her sleep this off there.” Kristoff said, patting her on the top of the head. “We can’t bring her back to her room anyway. Visitors aren’t allowed in the dorms at this hour.”

Hans scratched at the back of his neck. “Right.”

“Plus I’m only two blocks away.”

“Do you need help getting her back?”

“No, I think I-,”

Just then a bright flash lit up the night sky, causing both of them to freeze. They stared at each other with wide eyes for a few seconds before a deep roll of thunder echoed around them. The sky opened up then and rain began to pour down. 

“Oh fuck,” Hans cursed, raising his hands above his head in a futile attempt to shield himself. 

“Come on.” Kristoff dug a hand into his pocket, pulled out his keys, and handed them to Hans. “I’ll carry her. Let’s run.”

Kristoff scooped Anna up into his arms and held her close to his chest as him and Hans began to run the two blocks back to his apartment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up: Taking care of your not-so-sober friend.


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taking care of your not-so-sober friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Content warning: struggles with sexual identity, internalized homophobia / biphobia, references to thoughts of self harm, references to the importance of consent]

Kristoff’s feet splashed through puddles as he held Anna tight and ran down the sidewalk as fast as he could. It had been raining hard when they first left The Trading Post, but now the rain was coming down in sheets. 

Hans had sprinted out ahead of him with the keys and was thankfully already holding open the door to Kristoff’s apartment when he got there. Kristoff rushed right in, only slowing down to turn his body slightly to fit through the doorway with Anna in his arms. Hans closed and locked the door behind them and then tossed Kristoff’s keys over onto the kitchen counter. 

For a few seconds the two of them just stood there, breathing heavy and dripping wet. Still in a slight shock from what just happened. 

“The bouncing,” Anna moaned, “I don’t feel so good.”

“Get her right into the bathroom,” Hans said. 

Kristoff headed in, his wet sneakers squeaking against the tile, and gently sat her down on the floor near the toilet. 

“Here let me take this,” he said as he carefully lifted the strap of her purse up over her head. He handed it back to Hans. “Can you get her some water?”

Hans nodded and retreated back into the kitchen. 

“Sh’udn't h’ve had that whiskey,” she mumbled.

“No, probably not,” Kristoff said as he sat down on the floor next to her, “But don’t worry about it now, we’re going to take care of you.”

Hans came back in, stepping wide to get past them in the small bathroom, and sat down on the other side of Anna. “Here’s some water. And I grabbed what looked like a clean hand towel out of the kitchen too. Just in case.”

“Good thinking.”

Anna rocked forward a bit with a moan, her hair falling forward into her face. Kristoff realized how that was going to be a problem and tried to gather it up as best he could, but she had so much hair and he didn’t really know what he was doing. 

“Here, she has a hair tie.” Hans reached for Anna’s hand and gently removed the band from her wrist. 

Kristoff and Hans worked together to get her hair pulled back as best they could. The pony tail turned out not _so_ bad, he thought, considering they were two guys and Anna’s hair was all wet and messy. 

Hans scooted away from her a bit and sat with his back against the tub, his knees pulled up to his chest. They both sat in silence as Anna got sick. Kristoff rubbed a reassuring hand across her back. Hans handed her the water and towel as she needed them. 

“I’m s’ry guys,” she said once she was done getting sick. 

“It’s ok,” Kristoff said gently. “Everyone has nights like this eventually.” 

Anna moved away from the toilet, leaning back against the wall opposite it. She looked over at Kristoff with a droopy smile. “Did you like my song?” 

He returned a smile as he thought back to her stumbling around on stage back at The Trading Post. “Yes, Anna, it was great.”

“It’s one m’favorite s’ngs,” she slurred. “The lyrics are heaven is a place on earth. Because in heaven loves come first. But! But! You h’ve to _make it_ , that’s wha’ the s’ng say, you h’ve to _make it_.” 

Kristoff nodded along even though he didn’t really know the song that well, “That sounds nice.”

“Ugh,” Anna looked down at herself. “Whys my shirt wet?”

“It was raining,” Hans said. 

She looked over at him with a scowl. “Told you was gone rain.”

Hans smiled back at her. “Yes, you did.”

“Shirt feels gross,” she mumbled as she took hold of the hem of it and began to pull it up. 

“Anna, no, no,” Kristoff tried to stop her but she resisted and started to get the shirt up over her head. 

“Oh, um,” Hans cringed and then averted his eyes, looking up and away - clearly embarrassed by how his friend was now just in her bra in front of him. 

“I have tee shirts in my dresser,” Kristoff said, giving him an out. “Second drawer from the top.”

“Great, perfect,” Hans quickly jumped up and headed out of the bathroom. 

Kristoff helped her pull the shirt off the rest of the way and Anna tossed it down on the floor where it landed with a wet _thwack_. 

When Hans returned he leaned into the bathroom and held the new shirt out, still keeping his face turned away. 

“She’s decent now,” Kristoff said once he got the shirt on her. 

Hans drummed his fingers on the doorframe, “Should we try to get her to bed now?”

Kristoff stood up. “Yeah, I think that’s a good idea. I can carry her.”

“No,” she said defiantly as she got to her feet, “I can walk.”

“Here, you lead her,” Kristoff said, passing her off to Hans. He then bent over to pick up the bathroom garbage pail. “I’ll bring this with us just in case.”

But as they moved out of the bathroom, Anna began to head for the living room. 

“Bedroom is this way, Anna,” Hans said, trying to redirect her. 

“Couch is closer,” she said as she pulled free from Hans and flopped herself down on it. 

Hans looked back at Kristoff with a shrug. 

“Anna, are you sure?” Kristoff asked as he came to stand next to the couch. “You’ll be more comfortable on the bed.”

Anna just burrowed her face deeper into one of the pillows of the couch and mumbled something he couldn’t understand. 

Kristoff felt bad about her taking the couch, he knew it wasn’t that comfortable. But he also wasn’t about to force a drunk girl into his bed if she really didn’t want to go. 

He walked over to his closet and pulled out a spare blanket. By the time he laid it over her, Anna had already fallen asleep, a few light snores coming from her. 

Kristoff went to say something to Hans, but he held a finger up to his mouth in a silent _shh_ and then pointed over to the bedroom. Kristoff nodded and they both retreated out of the living room. 

“Thanks for your help, with her,” Kristoff said after closing the door quietly behind them. 

“Yeah, ‘course.” Hans took off his shoes and wandered further into Kristoff’s bedroom. He took his phone out of his pocket. “Ugh, please still work, ok good,” Hans mumbled to himself, tapping the screen before putting down on Kristoff’s desk. 

Kristoff hovered near the door, feeling uneasy. His sneakers were pretty wet so he began to take them off. Everything else he was wearing was wet too, but he was going to have to ignore that right now. 

“God, even my wallet is wet,” Hans said as he tossed it down onto Kristoff’s desk. He dumped the full contents of his pockets out onto the desk as he continued to mumble to himself. “Everything’s fucking wet.”

Hans then started to unbutton his shirt. 

Gone was whatever buzz Kristoff had been feeling back at the beer pong table. He was stone cold sober now and the reality of his situation was beginning to dawn on him. Alone, with Hans, in his bedroom. And Hans was taking his shirt off. 

“Wh-, what are you doing?” Kristoff asked. 

“Taking off my shirt,” Hans responded, as if it were the most natural thing. “It’s soaked. If I take it off and hang it up then maybe it’ll be dry by the time I leave.”

“Ok, ok,” Kristoff rocked back and forth on his heels. “When do you think you might be leaving?”

Hans narrowed his eyes. “What?”

“It’s, uh,” Kristoff tugged at the cuff of his own shirt as he struggled to maintain eye contact. “it’s just getting kinda late.”

Hans dropped his hands to his sides, leaving his shirt half unbuttoned. “Are you seriously trying to kick me out right now?”

“I-, I was just-,”

“It’s like a fucking monsoon out there, Kristoff,” Hans pointed at the window. 

“Right, right, nevermind,” Kristoff ran a hand through his wet hair and began to look around the room, trying to focus on anything besides the other man. He looked down at the small pile of Hans’s belongings that were on the desk. One item stood out, a small bag of gummy bears. He picked it up and inspected it. 

“Why do you have candy?”

Hans rolled his eyes. “Grow up, Kristoff. It’s not candy.”

It finally clicked for him and he dropped the bag back down on the desk. “ _Pot?_ You brought _drugs_ into my apartment?”

“Oh my _god_!” Hans snapped, “Why are you so uptight about _everything_?”

“I’m not uptight.”

“Yes you are!” Gone was any playful teasing that had existed earlier in the night. Hans seemed genuinely angry at him. “Literally everything that the three of us have ever done together Anna and I had to talk you into doing. All because of how uptight you are! And then there is still basic, stupid shit that you won’t do. Things where you act like they’re big fucking deals, but they’re not!”

“Like what?” Kristoff felt his defenses going up at this unexpected turn from Hans. 

“Like _what?_ Like, like,” Hans sputtered and then pointed at the bedroom door. “Jesus Christ, dude! You wouldn’t do karaoke with her. You wouldn’t even _dance_ with her last weekend. You think that makes her feel good? That you won’t do those things with her? I’m assuming _not_ considering what happened to her tonight.”

“What _happened_? You mean her getting drunk? You think that’s _my_ fault?”

Hans shrugged. “Well, you ignored her the whole night.” 

“Ignored her the whole night? You and I were playing beer pong the whole night. You’re seriously mad at me for hanging out with you?” Kristoff felt completely baffled by Hans’s argument. “We kept winning so we kept playing.”

“If you keep winning you _can_ keep playing.” Hans furrowed his brow as he stepped closer to him. “Nobody _forces_ you to. You could have walked away from that table at any point tonight.”

Kristoff huffed, “If it bothered you so much why didn’t _you_ walk away?”

“I did! Why do you think I intentionally lost the last game?”

“I _knew_ it! I _knew_ you missed that last shot on purpose!”

“Wow, what a genius!” Hans said, throwing his hands up in the air, his voice dripping with sarcasm, “Can’t get anything past you, Kristoff!”

“Just don’t, ok? Don’t be a little shit right now,” Kristoff shot back, anger beginning to rise in him. “And, I’m sorry, backing up here, but why do you think that what happens between me and Anna is any of _your_ fucking business?

“Because I’m her friend.”

“You’re supposed to be my friend too!” Kristoff shouted. 

“I am!” Hans shouted back, “And sometimes friends need to call each other out on their shit.”

“Oh! Really? _Really?_ That’s good to know. I’m going to file that away for later,” Kristoff said, pointing at his own head and feeling slightly like a crazy person, “because I got a feeling that’ll come in handy.”

“What’s _that_ supposed to mean?”

“Noooothing,” Kristoff held up his hands mockingly. 

“Me?” Hans pointed at himself. “Calling _me_ out on _my_ shit? I don’t have any shit.”

“You have so much shit!”

“What are you talking about? You have way more shit than I do!” Hans was practically yelling at him now, his face beginning to turn red. 

“I don’t have any shit! You have all the shit!”

“I can’t fucking _believe_ you right now!” 

“I can’t-, _fuck_ , I don’t even understand what we’re arguing about!” 

Hans ran his hands up and down his face and then steepled his fingers in front of his mouth, letting out a long aggregated sigh. “You know what, Kristoff? Fine. Don’t listen to me. Keep just being boring and uptight and never choosing to do anything new or different or whatever. See how it works out for you.”

Hans turned his back to him then and began to finish unbuttoning his shirt. 

Kristoff stood there watching him, left to marinate in his frustrations. Why did it always feel like two steps forward and one step back with them? They’d get closer but then butt heads again and fall back to bickering. Was it always going to be like this?

All the words that Hans just said started to sink in. Kristoff’s anger began to fade and he felt something else welling up in his chest. Sadness, hurt, embarrassment. All from being faced with the reality of how Hans actually saw him. 

Kristoff looked down at his desk and the small pile of Hans’s belonging that sat there. 

{ ~ }

“You know what, Kristoff? Fine. Don’t listen to me. Keep just being boring and uptight and never choosing to do anything new or different or whatever. See how it works out for you.”

Hans turned his back to him then and began to finish unbuttoning his shirt. He fumbled with the buttons as his hands were slightly shaking. 

What a fucking disaster of a night. Spent his whole time chasing after something that didn’t even exist. There were so many people at The Trading Post tonight. So many other options he could have pursued. But no, he had convinced himself that he was onto something with Kristoff. 

He tossed his shirt down on the floor in frustration. His undershirt was damp across the shoulders as well, but he was just going to have to put up with that. 

Hans thought back to that moment at the bar tonight, when Kristoff ran a hand down his back. Hans had been so sure in that moment that the deal was sealed for the night. But then just as quickly as it had happened, the moment disappeared. Kristoff retracting from him, suddenly so preoccupied with where Anna was. 

It shouldn’t have stung the way it did. 

But now he was stuck here. Stuck in this small room with Kristoff, who he just got into a stupid fucking fight with, until the storm passed. Fuck it though, maybe getting struck by lightning was a better alternative. 

“Boring and uptight, huh?” he heard Kristoff say from behind him. 

Hans sighed, really not wanting to start the argument back up again. 

“How’s _this_ for boring and uptight?” Kristoff’s voice sounded slightly different, as if something were in his mouth. 

Hans turned around to see him standing there holding his bag of edibles. Kristoff had a smug expression on his face as he chewed. 

_No. This idiot didn’t just…_

“How many of those did you just take?” Hans asked quickly. 

“Um,” Kristoff swallowed, “only a couple.”

“ _What?_ ” Hans rushed over to him and snatched the bag out of his hands. “These are really strong! You’re only supposed to take one!”

“But, but,” there was panic beginning to grow in Kristoff’s face, “but they’re so little. I figured you’d have to take a whole bunch to get high.”

“Why-, what-, have you never taken edibles before?”

“ _No_. I’ve never done _any_ drugs before.”

Hans raised his hands to his head. This wasn’t fucking happening right now. 

“You’ve never-, then what-, then why did you do that?”

“I was just, I was trying to prove-,” Kristoff’s eyes went wide. “Oh god, why did I do that?”

“Yeah, _not smart!_ ”

“Oh my god,” Kristoff began to pale. “Oh my god.”

Hans went to say something else but then took a deep breath. Yelling at Kristoff wasn’t going to solve anything. He needed to calm Kristoff down and get the situation under control because he was about to have a very large and very stoned person on his hands. 

And this was all a bit his fault anyway. He let his own frustrations get away from him. Hans couldn’t just swallow his pride and accept the rejection, he had to fucking lash out at Kristoff, say whatever hurtful thing came to mind. 

“It’s ok. It’s going to be ok. You just need to-, here,” Hans took Kristoff by the arm and pulled him over to the bed. Kristoff, still in a stunned state, allowed himself to be led along easily. “Here sit down.”

Kristoff sat down on the edge of the bed and looked up at Hans nervously. 

“I’m going to die.”

“You’re not going to die.”

“I need to go to the hospital, get my stomach pumped.”

“No,” Hans shook his head, “Kristoff, you’re going to be fine.”

“You, you need to take some too,” Kristoff pointed back over where the bag was on his desk. 

“That’s a terrible idea.”

“ _Please_ ,” Kristoff pleaded, “I don’t want to do this alone.”

“You’re not alone, Kristoff.” Hans placed a hand on his shoulder. “You’re about to be really high but I’m here and I’m going to stay sober and I’m going to take care of you. Ok? I’m not going to let anything happen to you. Do you trust me?”

Kristoff seemed to think the question over for a bit before nodding yes. 

“Ok, ok,” Hans gave him a small pat before removing his hand. “First things first, get yourself comfortable.”

Kristoff took off his wet flannel and tossed it to the floor. He moved to the center of the bed, sitting with his legs crossed. 

Hans sat down near the foot of the bed with his back against the wall, doing his best to ignore the way Kristoff looked in his undershirt. “Ok, now, just talk.”

“Talk about what?” Kristoff asked.

“I don’t know. Anything. Talk about stuff you’re learning in your classes.”

Kristoff shook his head, “You won’t understand it.”

Hans rolled his eyes. “Ok, first of all, I’m smarter than I look. And, second of all, it doesn’t matter. It’s just about keeping your mind occupied and distracted until the edibles hit.”

Kristoff seemed a bit sceptical but began to talk about one of his classes. Coding and circuits and, yeah, it all started going over Hans’s head pretty much immediately. But as he had said, it didn’t matter.

Hans leaned his head back against the wall as he listened to Kristoff talk. Kristoff was usually a man of few words, so it was different to hear him going on and on about something. He seemed really knowledgeable and passionate about what he was talking about. Hans thought about how it would only be a couple of months from now that Kristoff would be looking to get a job, a _real job_ , doing this stuff. 

About a half hour in, Kristoff’s speech began to slow and a few short laughs began to work their way in between his words. 

_Was it starting to…_

“I can’t, I can’t stop,” Kristoff seemed to be holding in some giggles. “Why can’t I stop laughing?” 

_...Yep, there it was._

“Because you’re stoned,” Hans told him. 

“Oh noooo,” Kristoff said before bursting forth with a hearty laugh. 

Hans laughed along with him a bit, enjoying the way Kristoff’s face lit up. 

Kristoff’s laughs stopped abruptly with a gasp. “Oh no!” he said, concerned, as he moved closer and took hold of Hans’s upper arm, “What happened?”

“Huh?” Hans looked down to see what had caught his attention. It was a bruise, visible just under the sleeve of his undershirt. “Oh that? It’s nothing. That was just from the game earlier this week.”

“The hit from number 53?” Kristoff’s eyes flared. 

“Yeah,” Hans answered, a bit amused. Kristoff remembered the jersey number of the guy that hit him?

“I _hate_ that guy,” he seethed through gritted teeth. 

Hans felt a small warmth in his chest. 

“It looks like it hurts,” Kristoff said with a frown, rubbing his thumb back and forth across the discolored skin. “You’ve got to be more careful out there, Rusty.”

“Rusty?” Hans raised an eyebrow. 

“Yeah,” Kristoff lifted his hand up and ruffled Hans’s hair, “Rusty.”

Hans swatted his hand away, “Piss off, blondie.”

That caused Kristoff to bust out with a big belly laugh, doubling forward and leaning his forehead against Hans’s shoulder. Hans chuckled slightly in response. 

But as Kristoff’s laugh eventually petered out, he didn’t lift his head back up. A silence settled in between them, no sounds besides their breathing, the rain against the window, and a nearby crack of thunder. Kristoff turned his head slowly so that it was now his temple that rested against Hans’s shoulder instead of his forehead. And then his arms raised up and wrapped around Hans in a tight hug, pulling him close. 

“You smell good,” Kristoff hummed. 

He felt Kristoff’s nose brush against his neck and his breath ghost hot across his skin. Hans closed his eyes as he took in the sensations. 

_Fuck._

Because this is what he wanted, right? Why he decided to _test the waters_. The grins and the looks and the casual touching. All with the goal of cracking that hard shell Kristoff kept around himself, seeing if there was anything underneath. 

But not like this. Never like this.

He needed to extract himself from Kristoff’s hold. Now. But, how? If Kristoff was as new to this as Hans suspected, then this was a delicate moment. Too obvious a rejection could send Kristoff running back into the closest deeper than ever. No, Hans needed to come up with a distraction of some kind. 

But as he was trying to think of something, Kristoff lifted his head. Hans could feel his heart beginning to pound in his chest as he met Kristoff’s gaze. The way his eyes danced across Hans’s face and the way his arms felt so good wrapped around him and _oh god_ Kristoff’s face was so close to his right now. 

“You hungry?” Hans blurted out. 

Kristoff dropped his arms and his eyes went wide as if Hans had just said the most brilliant thing he’d ever heard. “ _Yes_. I’m so hungry.”

“Ok,” relief flooded over him as Kristoff seemed to forget about whatever it was he was just about to do. “I’m going to grab us some snacks from the kitchen,” Hans gave him a pat on the shoulder before moving to get up from the bed. 

“We need to get the good chips,” Kristoff said, getting up to follow him. 

“No, no, no,” Hans said, motioning for him to stay, “No _we_. You stay. You’ll wake Anna.”

Hans slowly opened the bedroom door and quietly crept across to the kitchen. A glance in the direction of the living room confirmed that Anna was still sound asleep on the couch, snoring lightly. 

He then noticed that Kristoff had actually followed him out the door. Hans gave him a scowl and motioned for him to go back inside. 

Kristoff shook his head, “I need to show you where the good chips are.”

“You _need_ to be quiet,” Hans whispered as he began rummaging through the cabinets. 

“I am being quiet,” Kristoff said as he walked directly into his lamp, knocking it over. A look of sheer panic flashed across his face but he was able to grab hold of it right before it hit the ground. Kristoff then clasped a hand over his mouth as he tried to contain his laughter.

Hans shot him a glare and a _shhhh_ before craning his neck to make sure he hadn’t woken Anna up. Thankfully she was still asleep. 

“Get back in there,” he hissed at Kristoff as he walked out of the kitchen, arms full of snacks. 

“Are those the good-“

“Yes, they’re the good chips!” 

~

Kristoff was going to have to fall asleep eventually. At least that was what Hans kept telling himself. He felt exhausted, body and mind. 

The two of them were sitting on the bed in the same spots as before. Kristoff had eaten most of the food that Hans had brought in from the kitchen as he rambled on about different topics and sometimes falling into fits of laughter. Hans tried to engage in the conversation when he could. But other times he had no idea what Kristoff was talking about. 

Like right now. He was going on about some TV show that Hans had never heard of. Or maybe it was a movie? Hans couldn’t tell. 

“...but their timelines are different. He’s going one way through time and she’s going the other way.” Kristoff pointed in opposite directions with both hands before picking up more chips and shoving them in his mouth. “So she knows everything about him but he’s never met her and then she dies but then they get to know each other and they fall in love. And it’s both _awesome_ and _sad_ because…”

Yeah, Hans has no fucking clue what he talking about. 

“Which doctor is your favorite?” Kristoff asked him. 

“My favorite… doctor? Like, in life or…”

“No, no,” Kristoff managed to say through a fresh round of laughter, “doctor, TV…”

“Oh.” Hans thought about it for a moment and then shrugged. “I don’t know. Meredith Grey?”

“ _What?_ ”

“You know, Grey's Anatomy.”

“No, your favorite _doctor_ doctor!” Kristoff emphasized as if it clarified anything. 

“You’ve lost me again,” Hans smiled as he shook his head. 

“Oh!” Kristoff’s eyes went wide with excitement, “I need to go ask Anna which doctor is her favorite!”

“No, no,” Hans grabbed hold of Kristoff’s arm before he could get up from the bed, “Anna is sleeping, remember?”

“Ohhhh right,” he said, looking over at the door sadly, “I wish she was here right now. I want to cuddle her.” Kristoff hugged himself tight. “I get to do that every Friday night, did you know that? I get to cuddle her as I fall asleep. I’m so lucky that I get to do that.”

Hans watched Kristoff as he sat there hugging himself and thought about how it felt when Kristoff had his arms wrapped around him earlier. 

The smile on Kristoff’s face slowly began to fade and seemed to be thinking deeply about something. His head dropped forward and he lowered his hands down into his lap. Kristoff sat there in silence for some time and Hans continued to watch him, wondering if perhaps he was starting to fall asleep. 

“How did you know?” Kristoff asked eventually, his voice barely above a whisper. 

Hans tilted his head to the side. “How did I know what?”

Instead of answering, Kristoff just asked another question. “How were you sure?”

“Kristoff, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He just sat there looking down at his hands in his lap, slowly opening and closing them until finally closing them tight into fists. “I love women,” Kristoff said, his voice strained. “I do. I know I do.”

It dawned on Hans then, what Kristoff was trying to tell him. Kristoff wasn’t saying the actual words but his meaning was clear. 

“I do too,” Hans replied, not knowing what else to say. 

Kristoff raised his head back up, staring out into the middle distance instead of meeting his eyes. There was a raw vulnerability in his face. 

“I love the way they look, the way they smell, the way they feel. I love...” Kristoff held both his hands up in front of him and made a squeezing motion with them, “boobs.” 

Hans bit back a laugh. “Yeah, boobs are great.”

“I love women… more. It’s more. The other thing is still there but, but it’s not always as strong.”

Even though it wasn’t true for him, Hans knew that could be true for some bisexual people. To have a stronger attraction to one gender over others. Does he try to explain that to Kristoff? What was the right thing to say here? He had no idea. 

Hans never talked about this kind of shit. His sexuality just was what it was. He was bisexual. Explaining the details of it any further felt like trying to justify something, like wanting to prove that he had the right to use the word. Hans knew himself, he had known himself for years now, and he didn’t need to justify anything to anybody. 

But Kristoff was clearly reaching out here, looking for someone to talk with, to share with. Hans needed to share back. 

“It’s not quite that way for me,” Hans wrung his hands together. “For me it’s more like gender isn’t a factor. Male, female, non-binary, doesn’t matter. It’s all just… even across the board, I guess.”

Kristoff squeezed his eyes closed as if what Hans had said pained him. He covered his face with his hands and flopped backwards, his head hitting the pillow. “Then what’s _wrong_ with me?” he groaned. 

_Oh no._

“No, no, no,” Hans scrambled off the foot of the bed and walked around to the side. He sat down on the edge of the bed next to Kristoff. “There’s nothing wrong with you.”

Kristoff just groaned again, keeping his face covered. 

_Shit._ They had barely started talking and already Hans had said the wrong thing and fucked it all up. Kristoff deserved someone so much better than him to talk about these things with. Someone who knew the right things to say, someone who could be comforting, who wasn’t so emotionally fucking stunted like Hans was. 

But if Kristoff was coming to him like this, then it was a safe bet that he didn’t actually have anybody better to talk to. And the thing Kristoff really didn’t deserve was to face this all alone. Not like how Hans had to. Kristoff deserved so much better than what Hans had gone through years back. 

Hans adjusted himself so he was facing him more and placed a hand palm down in the center of Kristoff’s chest. He took a breath and hoped his words would be of some help. “There is nothing wrong with you, Kristoff. It’s different for everyone. Just because it’s different for you than it is for me doesn’t mean it’s any less real. That you’re any less valid.”

Kristoff uncovered his face and looked up Hans as if he somehow held all of the answers in the universe. He clasped a hand over Hans’s where it lay on his chest. 

“Do you ever wish you could make it go away?” 

“Not anymore,” Hans shook his head, “Not for a long time.”

“I wish I could be more like you.”

“You don’t want to be like me.”

“No, I do. Because sometimes I do wish I could make it go away. Sometimes I feel like it’s this _thing_ inside of me. Like it’s a _physical thing_. And if I was just able to find it and, and, and,” Kristoff’s voice broke slightly and he squeezed Hans’s hand, “and cut it out of me then I wouldn’t have to think about it anymore. It would just be gone and I’d be… and then I could be happy.”

Hans felt a weight in his chest and he had to push away old, bad memories. He turned his hand over so that he could hold Kristoff’s properly. “You can’t-, you don’t have to feel that way. You don’t have to make it go away to be happy.”

“But it’s not like being-, there’s a choice. I still love women. So why not pick the easier choice? The more acceptable choice?”

“Easier?” Hans asked. “What’s easier? Just ignoring it, denying it? Is that what you’ve been doing? How's it been working out for you?”

Kristoff frowned. 

“Exactly. And acceptable? Acceptable to who? Other people? Fuck what other people think.” Hans rubbed his thumb across the back of Kristoff’s hand. “They’re not the ones that have to live your life, you’re the one that lives it. And pretending to be something you’re not is no way to live.” 

“You’re such a good friend, Hans. I’m sorry I ate your pot.” Kristoff began to laugh at his own words. But not as loud or long of a laughing fit as some of his earlier ones. He was fading, Hans could tell. He’d probably be asleep soon. 

“It’s ok buddy. I’m sorry I snapped at you. I shouldn’t have yelled and said all those things.”

“I deserved it. I was being stupid.”

“No, I was just upset and saying things I didn’t mean.” Hans gave Kristoff’s hand a small squeeze. “It wasn't your fault that Anna got so drunk tonight. We can blame that on that curly haired girl that gave her whiskey.”

“That girl called us Anna’s boyfriends.” Kristoff laughed again, but it was more of a low rumble through his chest. He seemed to be struggling to keep his eyes open. “That was weird.” 

“Yeah.” Hans wondered what drunken confessions Anna had made to the girl. 

Kristoff blinked slowly a few times while looking up at Hans. “I had a really good time with you tonight.”

“Me too.” 

“It was, was like, like,” Kristoff closed his eyes and his hand fell away from Hans’s, “like s’mthin.”

“Yeah, it was something.”

“H’ns?” Kistoff mumbled. 

“Yes?”

“Can get goodnirt kiss?”

“You want a goodnight kiss?” Hans asked. 

Kristoff nodded, his eyes still closed. 

“If I do, will you go to sleep?”

He nodded again, “Pr’mise.”

Hans wasn’t going to kiss him for real, of course. But maybe he could get him on a technicality and Kristoff would finally fall asleep. 

Hans reached a hand up and carefully brushed Kristoff’s messy hair back away from his face. It was still slightly damp from the rain and stayed in place where Hans put it. 

He leaned forward and placed a soft kiss to the middle of Kristoff’s forehead. As he sat back up Hans saw that, while his eyes were still closed, Kristoff was now smiling that dopey, lopsided smile of his. He couldn’t help but smile back. 

“Goodnight Kris,” Hans said quietly. 

Kristoff’s eyes fluttered open briefly before closing again. Slowly, his smile began to fade and his breathing evened out into a steady rhythm. 

Finally asleep. 

Hans carefully stood up, not wanting the displacement of his body weight to disrupt the mattress too much. He gathered up the mostly empty bags of chips and snacks off the bed and piled them up on top of the dresser. 

Looking around the room, Hans assessed his situation - and his options. Rain was still lashing hard against the window and there was another clap of nearby thunder. 

Hans knew where Kristoff’s keys were out in the kitchen, but he didn’t know if he had any spare ones. Even if this storm wasn’t still raging, that meant his options would be to either take what could be Kristoff’s only set of keys and lock the door behind him or leave a passed out drunk Anna and a passed out stoned Kristoff alone in an unlocked apartment. Neither seemed like a very good idea. 

Hans carefully reached across Kristoff’s body to pick up an unused pillow from the other side of the bed. He walked to the middle of the room and tossed it down onto the floor. 

He picked his wet shirt up from where he had thrown it down in a heap. Shaking it out he looked around the room for where he could hang it up in the hopes that it would be dry by morning. 

Kristoff had his leather jacket draped over the back of his desk chair. Hans walked over and switched them out, folding the jacket over his arm as he hung his shirt up. Running a hand over the material of the jacket Hans could feel just how soft the leather was. He lifted the inside of the collar up to his face and gave it a small sniff. 

Hans turned the light off and headed back over to where he had tossed the pillow. Laying down on the floor, he pulled Kristoff’s jacket up over his chest and shoulders. As good of a blanket as he was going to get. 

The floor was a bit uncomfortable, but it had been a long night. Hans closed his eyes and was quickly lulled to sleep by the sounds of the rain against the window and of Kristoff’s heavy breathing.


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “What happened last night?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Content warning: conversations on consent]

As Hans slowly began to drift back into consciousness he buried his face deeper into his pillow and distantly wondered why it smelled like Kristoff. His eyes opened as he remembered where he was and why. He groaned as he rolled over onto his back. Fuck, sleeping on the floor was less than ideal. 

Sitting up, the jacket of Kristoff’s that he had been using as a blanket slid down into his lap. Hans ran a hand up and down his face as he looked around the room. Kristoff was still sound asleep on his bed where Hans had left him the night before. The apartment was quiet and still. Morning light was streaming in through the window. The rain had passed. 

Hans slowly stood and stretched before walking over to the desk, moving as quietly as he could so as not to wake Kristoff. He picked his shirt up off the back of Kristoff’s desk chair and replaced it with the leather jacket. Pulling on both his shirt and shoes he was thankful that they had actually dried overnight. 

He began to put his belongings that were scattered across Kristoff’s desk back into his pockets. Phone, keys, the fucking bag of edibles that caused so many problems last night. 

The last item was his wallet, but Hans paused before putting it away. He turned it over in his hands a few times while looking back over his shoulder at Kristoff. Hans thought about everything that had happened last night. And how Anna was still out in the living room. 

An idea formed in his mind and he placed his wallet back down on Kristoff’s desk before leaving the room quietly and closing the door behind him. 

As he walked into the living room he could see that Anna was still sound asleep on the couch. 

“Anna?” he said, crouching down next to her. 

She grumbled and scrunched her face up.

“Anna Bell…,” he cooed while gently brushing some stray hairs away from her face, “time to wake up.”

Her eyes reluctantly blinked open. As she focused on him, her eyebrows knit together in confusion. “Hans?”

“Morning beautiful,” he said with a small smile, “Sorry for waking you, but I’m leaving and I need you to lock the door behind me.”

“But what-, what happened last night? Why are you here?” 

Hans stood. “You got wasted so we had to carry you back. But then there was a bad storm so I slept on the floor in Kristoff’s room.”

“Where’s Kristoff now?” Anna asked as she slowly sat herself up on the couch. 

“Still passed out. He got really stoned last night so he might stay asleep for a while.”

Anna's eyes went wide. “Kristoff got stoned?” She looked over at the bedroom door and then back at Hans. “And I missed it?”

He laughed. “Yep. It was quite a show.”

“Did he do anything embarrassing?” she asked with a yawn. 

Hans obviously couldn’t tell her most of what happened last night. He decided to change the subject instead. 

“Embarrassing like… falling down drunk on stage at The Trading Post while singing a cheesy 80’s pop song?”

Anna groaned and covered her face with her hands, “Oh god. I did do that, didn’t I?” 

“Yes, and it’s a memory I’ll treasure forever. Now come lock the door behind me.”

Hans held out a hand and she reluctantly took it. He helped her up and then put an arm around her shoulders as they walked. 

“I’m going to be dealing with this hangover all day, aren’t I?” she asked. 

“Probably,” he answered as they got to the front door. “Go get some iced coffee, that’s always helped me.”

That made her laugh and she looked up at him with a tired smile. 

Hans had never really seen Anna like this before. Her hair was a bit of a disaster, having slept on the not-great ponytail that he and Kristoff had pulled it back in the night before. She had one of Kristoff’s baggy old tee shirts on and her makeup was all smeared. And yet, despite all that, she was still so cute. 

He quickly glanced back over at the bedroom door before placing a hand against Anna’s cheek and giving her a kiss on the top of her head. 

“Feel better, ok?”

“I’ll try,” she mumbled. 

{ ~ }

Anna locked the door behind Hans and groaned. Her head was pounding and her throat was dry. She took a water bottle out of Kristoff’s fridge and chugged the whole thing down. Nothing ever tasted quite as good as cold water the morning after a night of heavy drinking. 

When she entered Kristoff’s bedroom she saw him passed out on his back. He was still in his clothes from the night before, save his flannel shirt that was laying on the floor. Anna crawled into the bed and tucked herself under one of his arms. He stirred at the contact, rolling towards her and lazily draping an arm over her.

“Morning,” she said as she brushed her nose against his chin, “We both ended up messes last night, huh?”

“Hmm?” he quietly grumbled, his eyes still closed. 

“I got drunk and Hans said you got stoned.”

Kristoff’s eyes snapped open and then he quickly sat up. “Hans?”

“He just left. He said he slept on the floor last night.” Anna waved her arm over to where a pillow was still laying in the middle of the room. “Apparently there was a really bad storm last night? I don’t even remember that.”

“Did he say anything else?”

“Yeah, no, I don’t know,” Anna didn’t really feel like thinking right now. She tugged on Kristoff’s shirt to try to encourage him to lay back down. “Come on, let’s go back to sleep. I feel like shit.”

Kristoff seemed unsure for a moment before finally returning to her. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to his chest, placing a kiss to her forehead. Anna hummed at the pleasant sensations and drifted back asleep. 

~

“Just found my shirt from last night sitting in a wet heap next to the toilet,” Anna said, walking out of the bathroom. They had slept for a little while longer but were finally up and getting on with the day. “Is it ok if I borrow something of yours to walk home in?”

“Sure, of course,” Kristoff answered, his voice sounding distant. He was sitting over on the couch with his shoulders hunched. 

Anna went over and stood in front of him. “Are you ok?” she asked, running her fingers through his hair. 

“Yeah,” he said, leaning into her touch. He had a vacant look on his face and had seemed off all morning. 

Anna maneuvered herself between his legs and sat down on his lap. Kristoff wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his head on her shoulder with a sigh. 

“You sure you’re ok?” she pressed as she leaned her cheek against his hair. 

“Yeah, just a bit foggy I guess. I’m also starving but there’s no food in the apartment.” 

“Wonder why,” Anna snorted. “Next time you get stoned you have to do it with me, ok?”

“There’s not going to _be_ a next time,” he grumbled. After a beat he lifted his head and looked at her with an arched eyebrow. “Wait, have you done it before?”

She rolled her eyes. “It’s _college_ , Kristoff. Everyone’s done pot at least once. Even you, apparently.”

He groaned as he laid his head back down on her shoulder and pulled her closer to him. Anna smiled as she played with his hair. 

Later when she was searching through his closet for something to wear home, Anna found a dark, forest green flannel shirt that she thought looked nice. She lifted the collar up to her face and gave it a sniff. It smelled like Kristoff. 

It would be really big on her, but she could roll the sleeves up. As Anna put it on she secretly wondered how long she would be able to keep it before Kristoff asked for it back. 

{ ~ }

Kristoff sat on his couch with his head in his hands. Anna had just left a little while ago. He had done his best to act as if everything were normal while she was here, but now he was alone with his thoughts. 

All the memories from last night were rolling around in his head. Everything that happened at the beer pong table. The fight between him and Hans. Taking the edibles. And then while high, the things he said, the things he did. The thing he _almost_ did. 

That moment on the bed, when Kristoff had his arms around Hans and their faces were so close together. Kristoff had almost kissed him in that moment. He had thought about doing it, had wanted to do it. But then Hans asked him if he was hungry and, yeah, Kristoff had been really fucking hungry so he was easily distracted by that.

Now, sober and putting the pieces together, Kristoff realized that’s exactly what that was. Hans was just coming up with a distraction so that Kristoff wouldn’t kiss him. 

He groaned, the embarrassment feeling almost overwhelming. Not only had Kristoff revealed his deepest secret to Hans in the most humiliating way possible, he had also made his attraction to Hans obvious. 

No wonder Hans had run out of here before Kristoff even woke up. 

Maybe if he just never brought it up again then Hans would never bring it up either. Maybe they could both just pretend none of that ever happened and move on. Kristoff wasn’t sure how realistic that was. But at least he would have almost a whole week to think about it before he had to see Hans again. 

His phone buzzed then and Kristoff pulled it out of his pocket. It was a message from Hans, but not in the group text. Kristoff sat up straight as he read it. 

_hey, i think i forgot my wallet at your place, mind if i swing by this afternoon to pick it up?_

No. 

No, no, no.

Kristoff looked around the living room and then jumped up from the couch and headed back for the bedroom. He took a quick look around before finding it. Hans’s wallet, sitting there on Kristoff’s desk.

For the briefest of moments Kristoff considered lying. _Nope, no wallet here. Must have left it at the bar._ But, fuck, no he couldn’t do that. 

He groaned before typing back the only message he could. 

_yeah, swing by whenever_

Like it or not, Kristoff was going to have to face Hans today. And if that was the case, then he couldn’t just ignore what had happened last night. He needed to address it. Apologize, try to salvage their friendship if he could. 

~

It was a couple hours later when there was finally a knock at the door. Kristoff picked Hans’s wallet up and quickly headed over. He took a deep breath before putting his hand on the knob and opening the door. 

Hans was dressed differently than how Kristoff was used to seeing him. He was wearing a gray sweatshirt that said Arendelle Lacrosse on the front in the school’s purple and green colors. He was also wearing athletic shorts and sneakers and had a large bag slung over his shoulder with the head of a lacrosse stick poking out the back of it. 

“Hey,” Hans said with a smile. 

“Hey,” Kristoff responded before stepping back to allow him entry. 

“I’m on my way to practice,” he said as he took a few steps into the apartment, “That’s why I have all my gear with me.” 

“Right,” Kristoff nodded.

There was a bit of an awkward silence before Hans held a hand out. “Well, I can just take that and get out of your hair. Sorry for leaving it here.”

“Actually,” Kristoff said, keeping the wallet clutched in his hands, “I was hoping that maybe we could talk?”

Hans lowered his lacrosse bag off his shoulder and placed it down on the ground. “Sure.”

Kristoff closed the front door and then wandered further back into the kitchen. “I wanted to apologize. For a number of things.”

“Ok,” Hans said casually. 

How was Hans acting so calm and normal right now? As if Kristoff hadn’t revealed earth shattering secrets last night? As if everything between them was not now changed? 

Kristoff swallowed and pressed on. “First, I want to apologize for taking your edibles without asking. That was wrong and pretty stupid. I’m going to pay you back for what I ate.”

“I have to agree that it _was_ pretty stupid,” Hans said in a tone that was serious but not unkind, “You can’t just take drugs without knowing what’s in them or how strong they are. But it’s fine, Kristoff. You don’t have to pay for anything.”

“I should though.”

“No, it’s fine.”

“I want to.”

“I’m not taking your money. So,” Hans waved his hand dismissively, “let's just move on.”

Kristoff leaned back against the kitchen counter as he regrouped his thoughts. “Ok, um, next I want to apologize for my behavior once I was high. For what I did, or, what I _almost_ did. I-, I obviously wasn’t thinking clearly. And being high is not an excuse. It was totally inappropriate and I clearly made you uncomfortable and, um,” Kristoff felt his skin crawling as he talked, but he needed to get this out. “It won’t happen again. I promise. You don’t have to worry, it won’t happen again.”

Hans was looking at him curiously, “What are you talking about?”

Kristoff began picking at his fingernails. Was Hans really going to make him say it? 

“You know, last night, when you asked me if I was hungry. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I can put the pieces together now. You were just trying to distract me. To stop me from… from doing what I was about to do.”

“What were you about to do?” Hans asked, taking a step closer. 

_Kiss you._

“You know. And clearly it made you uncomfortable. And can you, can you please just accept my apology?”

“You keep saying that. ‘Clearly uncomfortable’.” He took another step closer. “Why do you think that?”

“Because you stopped it,” Kristoff said to the ground. 

Hans paused his approach. “I didn’t stop it because I was uncomfortable. I stopped it because you were really high and I was completely sober.”

Kristoff looked up at him. 

“Do you-,” Hans frowned and his forehead creased, “Do you think that I would ever let something happen in a situation like that? That I would just take advantage of you, or anyone, like that?”

Hans looked hurt and, _fuck_ , how had Kristoff managed to make things worse?

“No,” Kristoff shook his head, “No, sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Ok,” Hans’s face relaxed a bit. “Because I would like to think that you see me as at least _somewhat_ of a decent person.”

“Yes, no, of course. I-, fuck, I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking of it in that way.” Kristoff ran a hand through his hair as he felt a tightening in his chest. “My head has been really messed up today. I just, I just keep thinking about all the things I said to you last night. And I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to tell you all that stuff or ask you all that stuff.”

“You don’t have to say sorry about that.” 

“I _do_. I just threw all that at you out of nowhere and-,”

“Kristoff. Stop.” Hans’s voice was firm but the expression on his face was soft. He began walking towards Kristoff again. “Look, I’ve let you ramble on with these other apologies, but I’m not going to let you apologize for telling me what you told me last night. For asking me the questions you asked me. You don’t _ever_ have to apologize for that. Do you understand?”

“But I know it got kinda heavy. The things I said.” His heart was pounding. 

“It’s ok.” 

“It was-, it was a lot.” He was starting to struggle to breathe. 

“It’s ok.” 

Hans came to stop directly in front of him. 

Kristoff closed his eyes and dropped his head forward. All the embarrassment and shame and Hans wasn’t letting him apologize for one bit of it. 

“It’s ok, Kris,” Hans’s hands were on him then, pulling Kristoff away from the counter and forward into a hug. “It’s ok.” 

Kristoff swayed slightly but Hans held him tight. It felt like something was dislodging itself from deep inside of Kristoff’s chest as he let out a ragged breath. “Thank you,” he whispered as he folded his arms around Hans and hugged him back. 

_Somebody else knows._

It felt almost surreal. For the first time in his life, somebody else knew about this secret that Kristoff had held onto and feared for so many years. They knew and they weren’t judging him or scorning him or telling him he was wrong or confused. Instead they were hugging him and telling him that it was ok. 

“Thank you,” he repeated before giving Hans one last squeeze and releasing him from the hug. 

“Feeling better?” Hans asked as he looked up at him. 

“Yes,” Kristoff nodded. “Thank you. I needed that.”

“I figured you might,” Hans said with a small smile. He reached down and took his wallet out of Kristoff’s hand. “That’s why I left this here.”

“You-, you left it here on purpose?” 

“Mmmhmm.” There was a glint in his eyes. “I wasn’t sure if you were going to want to talk about everything that happened. But I figured if you _did_ , then it would be best to talk once you had the chance to wake up a bit. And once no one else was here.”

Kristoff had said ‘thank you’ to Hans a few times already, but he wasn’t sure if he could ever fully articulate the gratitude he felt towards him at that moment. 

Hans stepped away, moving back to where his bag was, and Kristoff instantly missed his presence. He had an itch to reach out, to grab his hand and pull him close again. But Kristoff couldn’t do that. He had to leave boundaries in place. 

“Oh,” Hans said as he bent down to pick up his lacrosse bag and sling it over his shoulder. “Going back to what we were talking about before, what I stopped you from doing last night.”

Kristoff tensed at the reminder. “Yeah?” 

“I just wanted to say, for the record, that if you ever made a pass at me while we were both sober…,” Hans paused and a playful smirk spread across his face, “...I wouldn’t say no.”

“W-,” Kristoff’s brain short circuited. “Wait, what?”

“But not right now, of course. I have to get to practice,” Hans opened the front door and gave Kristoff a wink over his shoulder. “See ya ‘round.” 

And then Hans was gone, closing the door behind him, and Kristoff was left standing there in stunned silence. 

~

Kristoff sat slouched low on his couch as he thought about Hans’s… offer? Is that what he could call it? 

_‘I wouldn’t say no.’_

He found himself going over the pros and cons of taking him up on it. 

Of course Kristoff _wanted_ to, at least on a very base level. He was past trying to ignore his attraction to Hans at this point. His eyes, his smile, the lines of his body. The way he would tease and keep Kristoff on his toes. That little bit of fire in his personality that always seemed to be burning just under the surface. 

Yeah, Kristoff wanted him. The question was if it was a good idea. 

One ‘pro’ was that Hans was discreet. Kristoff knew he never talked about the guys he slept with. It was still something he should confirm with Hans for sure though. That anything physical that happened between them would need to stay a secret. 

Hans was also, well… Hans. He was always with a different person and didn’t seem like the type to get attached. And he probably had a big enough ego when it came to this stuff that there wasn’t a risk of feelings getting hurt if Kristoff chickened out part way through or just wanted to do something once and then never again. 

And one other big thing was really standing out in his mind: What if this was Kristoff’s only chance at something like this? 

Hans knew that Kristoff was… not straight… without Kristoff ever having to say the actual words. He said enough, and did enough, to where Hans was able to figure it out. But Kristoff never actually had to say _it_ outloud. When would Kristoff ever be in a situation like this again? Where a guy just _knew_ and was putting out this offer? 

Because how else would he ever be with a guy? Download an app? Go try to pick a guy up at a bar? No, that was never going to happen. Fuck, the thought of trying to do that kind of thing with a _woman_ was scary enough. Kristoff knew that he had been lucky that Anna had made the first moves, because he never would have had the nerve to. 

Which of course led him to the one big ‘con’. 

Anna.

He cared about her. He did. It wasn’t just meaningless sex to him. She was special. 

But they both agreed, free to see other people. Kristoff hadn’t actually been with anybody else all semester. Though, Anna probably had. He knew she went out on Saturday nights while he was busy working. He had to assume that she didn’t go home alone every one of those nights. It wasn’t something that actually bothered him, but at the same time it wasn’t something he liked to think too deeply about. 

Also, wasn’t Anna the one always talking about college being all about _experiences_? Maybe she’d actually be proud of him in some strange way. Not that he was anywhere near be ready to tell her anything about any of this. 

She lived her life with such a sense of freedom. She never seemed weighed down by the same silly fears that always held him back from things. Maybe Kristoff could benefit from being a little bit more like Anna 

Ok. Yes. He’d do it. Kristoff would take Hans up on his offer. 

Now. How to go about doing that. 

{ ~ }

“Mmm, _Hans_ ,” Anna moaned as he curled his fingers deep inside her warmth before capturing her mouth with another kiss. 

Hans hadn’t planned on going out tonight. Last night had been a long and emotionally exhausting one. He had only gotten a few hours of sleep - a few hours of sleep _on a floor_ specifically. Not to mention the hard lacrosse practice that afternoon. So the plan had been a quiet Saturday night in. 

Then Anna started texting him.

She said that she had spent the day nursing her hangover. That she was feeling better but that she wasn’t planning on going out either. And, hey, if they were both not going out, why not not-go-out together? Maybe watch a movie or something? 

Hans wasn’t about to say no to Anna. So over to her dorm and up through the second floor window he went. They had started out just talking and hanging out. But close quarters on her bed had led to slow, lazy kisses. Which had led to wandering touches. Which had led to their current position. 

They were laying on their sides facing each other and Anna had her top leg hitched up high over Hans’s hip. He had a hand down between her legs and she had one wrapped around his length. 

Hans broke their kiss so he could watch her face as he added a third finger inside of her. 

“ _Oh_ ,” she gasped as her grip around his cock tightened. 

“You like that?” he whispered as he leaned his forehead against hers. 

Anna hummed back her approval as she rocked herself against his hand and, _fuck_ , it always drove him wild to see her like this. Hans kissed her again as they both worked each other closer and closer to release. 

{ ~ }

Kristoff sat in his car after dropping off a couple of pizzas. He knew he needed to get back to Fredo’s to pick up his next delivery, but he couldn’t keep putting this off. He feared that if he let today pass then he would lose his nerve.

Staring down at his phone he typed out, then deleted, then typed out message after message until he finally formed one that he felt worked. Clear, but not desperate. Obvious, but not too obvious. Hopefully unmistakeable in meaning to Hans but completely innocent to anyone else who may accidentally see it. 

Ok. It’s good. Send it. Send it. Just send it. Do it. 

Do it, do it, do it. 

Kristoff tapped the screen to send the message and then tossed the phone down on the passenger seat. Leaning forward, he banged his head against the steering wheel a few times. 

“It’s fine. It’s fine. I’m fine.” Kristoff grumbled to himself as he started the car back up. “I’m so fine that I’m talking to myself.” 

{ ~ }

“I have to run to the bathroom real quick,” Anna said as she swung her legs down over the side of her bed. “You’re still good to hang out for a little while, right?”

“Yeah, it’s not that late yet.”

“Great,” Anna quickly pulled on some clothes. “I’ll be right back.” 

Once she was out the door Hans hopped down from the bed and walked over to where his jeans were sitting on the floor. He had heard his phone going off before and wanted to check it. 

His eyebrows went up once he looked and saw that it was a message from Kristoff. Hans unlocked his phone and read it. 

_want to come over tomorrow to watch the game?_

Hans ran a hand down his face and laughed to himself. Jesus fucking christ, Kristoff. _The game?_ Really? 

Oh, but he really shouldn’t laugh though. It had probably taken a lot of nerve for Kristoff to send that message. Even if it was dripping with repression and all kinds of internalized bullshit. 

Hans typed out a simple response. 

_sure_


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hans comes over to watch the game.

Kristoff paced back forth in his kitchen. It was Sunday afternoon and Hans would be there any minute. 

He glanced over to the living room. Kristoff hadn’t actually thought to check what games were going to be on today when he had sent his text message the night before. Turned out the only thing that was on was pre-season baseball - basically glorified practice - so that was what he had the TV tuned to. 

Kristoff ran a hand down the front of his shirt to smooth out some wrinkles. He had spent way too much time worrying about what he should wear, eventually settling on a long sleeve tee shirt and jeans. He knew Hans always liked to make fun of his clothes. But those were just jokes, right? Kristoff figured he shouldn’t actually be worried about wearing something nice today. He didn’t want to seem like he was trying too hard. It’s not like this was a date or anything. This was just… what _was_ this? 

A knock on the door caused him to jump. 

_Ok, deep breath, you can do this._

Kristoff went to the door and opened it. He relaxed a bit when he saw what Hans was wearing. Zip hoodie, tee shirt, jeans. He had been right to stick with something casual. 

“Hi,” he said. 

“Hi,” Hans responded with a small smile. 

Kristoff stepped aside and allowed him entry. They idled in his kitchen for a bit as Kristoff tried to think of what to say. 

“Um, you want a beer?” he offered. 

“Yeah, sure,” Hans answered. 

Kristoff opened the fridge and took out two beer bottles, handing one over to Hans. 

Hans looked down at it and then peered over into the fridge that Kristoff still had open. “Do you have anything besides Budweiser?”

“Oh, uh,” Kristoff looked in the fridge and then back Hans, “No. Sorry.” 

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it,” Hans said quickly as he twisted the cap off. 

“You sure?”

“Yeah,” Hans shrugged, “beer is beer.”

Kristoff nodded and closed the fridge. He twisted the cap off his own beer before heading to the living room, Hans following behind him. 

They sat down on the couch in the same spots they would always occupy on Friday nights when the three of them would work on their assignments. Except, it was just the two of them today.

A whole inning of the game went by with the two of them sitting and watching in silence. Kristoff chewed on his cheek, each passing minute filling him with more and more nervous energy. 

After a bit Hans slipped off his shoes and readjusted himself so that he was sitting cross-legged on the couch. Kristoff glanced at him from the corner of his eye. Hans seemed more relaxed than how Kristoff felt, looking forward at the TV with a blank expression. But he also wasn’t drinking his beer, instead Hans was just holding it in his lap with both hands. 

Kristoff looked back at the TV. He hadn’t thought ahead as to what would happen once Hans was here. He had just assumed that Hans would make the first move. But that wasn’t happening and now they were just sitting there holding beers that neither of them were actually drinking and watching a baseball game that didn’t actually count for anything. 

He twisted the beer bottle around in his hands. Should he be making the first move here? Surely Hans had to know how impossible that would be for him. Why had he thought this was a good idea? He was embarrassing himself.

Kristoff felt something on his knee suddenly. He looked down to see the tips of Hans’s fingers pressing down on it. Only then did Kristoff realize that he had been nervously bouncing his leg up and down and, yeah, that was probably pretty annoying to have to sit next to.

“I’m sorry,” he said, not looking at Hans.

“It’s ok,” Hans responded as he retracted his hand. 

Kristoff took a deep and shaky breath, keeping his eyes on the beer in his hands. “I have no idea what I’m doing,” he admitted. 

“That’s-, that’s ok. That’s a normal thing to feel. In life, in general, I mean.” Hans sounded like he was working hard to find the perfect, most delicate words to say. As if Kristoff was this scared little thing that Hans had to be careful not to spook. 

Kristoff began to pick at the label of his beer, peeling back the edges where the condensation had softened the paper. While he was appreciative of the kindness that Hans had shown him yesterday and was showing him here now, it felt off. It felt wrong. It felt… not _them_. He thought back to Friday night at the beer pong table. Hours spent hanging out and talking and joking. Everything felt so easy and natural between them then. But now? Things felt heavy and stilted. 

“We can just watch the game,” Hans said into the silence. “We don’t have to-, we can just watch the game if that’s all you want to do. It’s not a big deal.”

Kristoff lifted his gaze back up to Hans and shook his head, “You’re really throwing me off here.”

“Wha-? How?” Hans’s eyebrows went up and he let out an exasperated huff, “I’m actually trying really hard to be nice here.”

“Yeah, exactly, that’s what's throwing me off,” Kristoff said as he put his beer down, “I don’t know how to react to you when you’re not being, being....”

“Being what? An asshole?” Hans grinned at that, “You want me to be an asshole?”

And, _shit_ , there was that fucking grin of his. Kristoff looked at Hans’s mouth before looking away and back down at his own lap. 

“No, that’s not what-,” he sighed. “I don’t know. I don’t know what I want.”

Hans didn’t say anything in response. 

And there it was. Kristoff had ruined it. Whatever potential that this _thing_ had was gone. All the nerve it took for him to get to this moment and once it was here, he was too much of a coward to do anything with it. Just some pathetic closet case, paralyzed by anxiety and fear.

“This beer is terrible.” 

Kristoff glared over again Hans. “What?” 

“The beer. It's awful,” Hans held up the bottle and crinkled his nose in disgust, “You have awful taste in beer.”

“Ok,” Kristoff said with the shake of his head, knowing exactly what Hans was doing.

“I mean, who drinks Budweiser?” Hans sat up a bit and put his beer down on the coffee table. “Not even Bud Light. Just regular Budweiser? Are you, like, secretly a redneck or something?”

“Hans, I know what you’re trying to do. And, you really don’t have-,”

“And no snacks?” Hans continued on as if he didn’t hear him. “Who invites someone over to watch the game and doesn’t have snacks? I get that you ate just about everything in your apartment the other night, but you could have gone to the store between then and now.”

Kristoff put an arm up over the back of the couch, turning his body slightly in Hans’s direction. “Please shut up.” 

Hans turned to face Kristoff, moving closer to him in the process. “And, you know, I’ve been thinking about that whole ‘good chips’ thing from the other night because it implies the existence of ‘ _not_ good chips’ in the apartment. But, like, they’re all _your_ chips. You’re the only one who lives here. Why would buy any chips that you yourself don’t think are ‘good chips’?”

“Can you shut up already?” He bit down on the inside of his cheek, not wanting to give Hans the satisfaction of a smile or a laugh. 

“But seriously, how do you have nothing to eat? No nachos? No wings? Heck, I’d even take some of those little microwaveable pizza bagels.” 

“Seriously,” Kristoff said with a bit more force. “Shut _up_.”

“Make me,” Hans snapped back with a gleam in his eye that sent a wave of heat through Kristoff’s whole body. 

He huffed out a short breath and then moved, almost without thinking, quickly clasping a hand around the back of Hans’s head and bringing their mouths together. Kristoff pressed his lips hard and unmoving against the other man’s, more an act of defiance than an act of passion. 

He pulled away when he finally needed a gasp of air, but kept their faces no more than an inch apart. When he opened his eyes Hans was looking back at him and watching him intently. Kristoff could see the exact green of his eyes and how his eyelashes were the same dark red as the hair on his head. 

“You good?” Hans asked softly. 

Kristoff didn’t trust himself to speak, so he nodded instead. 

“Good.” Hans leaned in and pressed their mouths together again, gentler than Kristoff’s kiss had been. Soft lips moving slow against his own. 

There was a brief out of body experience for Kristoff. This was really happening. He was kissing a man. He was kissing _Hans_. 

But then Hans was moving even closer to him on the couch, until their bodies were right up next to each other, and Kristoff was pulled back into the moment. Breaking free from old fears and giving in, Kristoff tilted his head and began to kiss him back. 

He let his hand relax from its tight grip on the back of Hans’s head, slowly coming forward to his cheek. Kristoff’s fingers picked up new sensations as they moved. His short hair, his sideburns, the shape of his jaw, the faint hint of stubble on his cheek. 

The warmth that Kristoff had been feeling began to concentrate itself in his chest. He felt Hans brush his tongue experimentally across Kristoff’s bottom lip. Kristoff opened his mouth and deepened the kiss, earning a pleasant hum from Hans in response. 

They were so close together, but Kristoff wanted to be closer still. Closer than sitting side by side would allow. Kristoff began to lean into Hans, to lay him back on the couch. Hans went willingly, wrapping a hand around the back of Kristoff’s neck to keep their lips locked together as they moved. 

As Hans’s back made contact with the couch cushions Kristoff readjusted his lower half to better position himself. But as he went to put a knee down on the edge of the couch it slipped off and he fell to the floor. 

“Shit,” he hissed. 

Hans quickly sat back up. “Are you ok?” he asked, concerned. 

“Yep, yep,” Kristoff answered, trying to think away the sting in his knee. 

“Here,” Hans said, standing up from the couch and holding out a hand. 

“Thanks,” Kristoff said as he took his hand and stood, “I seem completely incapable of going five minutes without embarrassing myself.”

Hans smiled. “Yeah, but it’s kinda cute.”

If Kristoff hadn’t already been blushing, then he definitely was then. 

“Since your couch is a bit small,” Hans unzipped and removed his hoodie, tossing it onto the couch, “did you want to go elsewhere?”

Elsewhere. His bed. 

“Ok,” he managed to get out even though his mouth had gone completely dry. 

Kristoff felt almost like he was floating as he followed Hans into the bedroom. He could hear his heartbeat in his ears and his skin tingled. 

Hans took hold of Kristoff’s hips and guided him backwards towards the bed. Kristoff sat down on the edge and looked up as Hans climbed on top of him, straddling him and settling in on his lap. Kristoff let his hands run up the outsides of the other man’s thighs before taking hold of his hips. Hans placed his hands on Kristoff’s shoulders and leaned in to kiss him again. 

But, before their lips could meet, a bit of panic hit Kristoff. He had forgotten to confirm the thing he had wanted to confirm before anything physical happened between the two of them. 

“Nobody can know,” he blurted out. 

Hans froze, the expression on his face turning sympathetic. “Nobody will.”

“Not even-,”

“ _Nobody_ ,” Hans said more firmly, cutting him off and allowing Kristoff to not actually have to say her name. He placed his hands on either side of Kristoff’s face, “I would never, _ever_ , tell anyone. You trust me, right?”

Did he trust Hans?

It would have seemed like an absurd question to Kristoff if he would have been asked it back when they first met. Trustworthy would not have been the word he would have used to describe Hans back then. Words like douchebag, asshole, or prick would have seemed more fitting. 

But Kristoff had begun to see just how much of an act that all was.

There had been hints of it earlier on, hadn’t there been? That first night out, the party at delta house. When Kristoff was internally melting down from embarrassment at the flip cup table, it was Hans’s hand on his shoulder and words in his ear that had steadied his nerves and calmed his mind. And how many times since then has Hans used a joke or some playful teasing to help put Kristoff at ease? 

The way Hans took care of him Friday night. The way he refused to allow Kristoff to apologize yesterday. The way, just then out in the living room, he knew exactly what Kristoff needed in order to relax. This was who Hans really was. 

So, yes, Kristoff trusted him. He trusted Hans to be patient with him in this. He trusted Hans to be gentle with him in this. And he trusted Hans to keep this secret for him. 

“Yes,” Kristoff said as he tightened his grip on Hans’s hips, “Yes, I trust you.”

Then Hans was kissing him again, fierce but tender. 

Kristoff’s fingers wandered up, slipping under his shirt and rubbing against the warm skin above the line of his jeans. Hans apparently took the movements as a request, as he broke their kiss to pull his shirt up over his head and toss it to the floor behind him. 

Kristoff let out a breath as he took in the sight of him. Wiry muscle, strong but lean. And abs, of course Hans had fucking abs. Kristoff pressed one hand flat against his back as the other moved up and down the front of his body. 

Hans stayed still, watching him with hooded eyes and allowing Kristoff his explorations. 

There were dustings of freckles across the tops of his shoulders and more scattered throughout his torso. A light layer of auburn hair in the center of his chest and more trailing from his navel to down below the waistband of his jeans. 

The bruise on his arm was still there, the one Hans got in the lacrosse game that Kristoff had noticed when he was stoned. He rubbed his thumb across the discolored skin just as he did that night. Then Kristoff leaned forward and placed a kiss on it. He kissed higher and higher, trailing over Hans’s shoulder, across his collarbone, up his neck. 

“ _Kris_ ,” Hans breathed out as the kisses reached what must have been a particularly sensitive spot on his neck. Kristoff made sure to make note of its location. 

Hans placed his hands back on Kristoff’s shoulders and kissed him hard on the mouth, rocking all of his weight forward and causing Kristoff to fall backwards on the bed. 

“Mmm,” Kristoff hummed between kisses, “let me at least get all the way on the bed.”

“Yes, don’t want another mishap,” Hans teased. 

A few small breathy laughs passed between them as they rotated and readjusted so Kristoff’s legs were no longer dangling off the bed. And then they were kissing again, with Kristoff flat on his back and Hans straddling him. 

Kristoff allowed his hands to roam from Hans’s hips, up his sides, over his chest, and then finally cupping his face. 

With a quick movement Hans broke the kiss and captured Kristoff’s wrists in his hands, pinning them down to the mattress on either side of his head. He didn’t have time to react before Hans was claiming his mouth again. 

Even though Hans was for sure the strongest person he had ever been with, Kristoff knew that between the two of them he was still the physically stronger one. But he tested it, lightly beginning to resist Hans’s hold to see just how strong he was. 

“Ah ah ah,” Hans scolded as he pressed harder on his wrists and nipped at Kristoff’s earlobe, sending a wave of pleasure through him. 

“I could break free if I wanted to,” Kristoff said, trying to sound unaffected. 

Hans lifted his head to stare down at him. “Then prove it.”

Kristoff did just that - snapping his wrists out of Hans’s hold, grabbing his body, and flipping him over onto his back. 

There was a bit of shock on Hans’s face at just how easily he had been overpowered. But before Kristoff’s thoughts could start a new spiral of self-doubt Hans’s expression changed back to a smile and he began to tug at Kristoff’s shirt. “Why’s this still on?” he teased, but his voice had taken on a huskier tone. 

Kristoff pushed himself up and sat back on his heels before pulling his shirt off over his head. He watched Hans as his eyes swept across his bare chest and shoulders and arms. There was a flutter in Kristoff’s belly at the idea that Hans was enjoying what he was seeing. 

Kristoff moved forward again, laying himself down on top of Hans. As they kissed, Hans began to invade all of his senses. His smell. His taste. His hands exploring Kristoff’s body. The small noises coming from the back of his throat between kisses. The heat from their bodies and their bare chests pressed together. 

Kristoff wanted to touch him everywhere at once. The hard muscles of his body, his face, even trailing fingertips down his neck to brush against his Adam’s apple. Feeling for everything that made Hans a man, as if to prove to himself that this wasn’t all just a product of his imagination. 

Hans rolled his body, rocking his hips upward against Kristoff’s. A gasp escaped Kristoff’s mouth at the sensation. He could feel Hans’s erection pressing hard against his own through both of their jeans. Kristoff reciprocated the motion, grinding his hips down and causing sounds of pleasure to emit from both of them. 

Kristoff began to do it over and over again as he rested his forehead against Hans’s. He reached down and grabbed hold of the back of one of Hans’s thighs as they moved against each other. The contact and the friction felt so good but also, _dear god_ , not enough. He had to have more. 

“Fuck, Hans,” he panted, “I want-, I want-.”

“Yes,” Hans gasped as he rolled his body upward again and buried a hand into Kristoff’s hair, “Tell me what you want.”

Fresh waves of arousal rolled through Kristoff at the eagerness in his voice. “I want to touch you.”

“Touch me,” Hans responded, his voice almost a plea. 

Kristoff rolled off of him and positioned himself on his side facing Hans. He ran his hand down the other man’s flat stomach until he reached the top of his jeans. Kristoff took a deep breath to steady his nerves. He had never done anything like this before, but he hoped that wouldn’t be too obvious to Hans. Besides, it wasn’t like he had no idea what to do. It couldn’t be much different from touching himself. Same equipment and all that. 

He experimentally ran the palm of his hand across the front of Hans’s jeans, feeling his hardness underneath. Hans hummed and kissed at Kristoff’s neck. Slowly, Kristoff unbuttoned and unzipped his fly and Hans helped move them, along with his boxer briefs, down off his hips. 

Another deep breath was needed once Hans was on full display. It was such a new thing, such a big step, to touch another man in this way. He looked back up at Hans’s face, at his parted lips and how his eyes were dark with desire and Kristoff knew that he wanted this. Yes, _fuck_ , he had no doubt that he wanted this. 

Kristoff refocused. A dry handjob could be unpleasant, he knew. Reaching back behind him, Kristoff opened the top draw of his nightstand and took out his bottle of lube. He poured some into his palm before returning and wrapping his hand around Hans’s cock and giving it a stroke. 

Hans let out a sharp hiss at the contact. 

Kristoff felt a shot of panic. “Was that ok?”

“Yeah, a little cold but, _oh_ ,” Hans moaned as Kristoff stroked his hand again, “oh, _yes_.”

Kristoff braced himself on his forearm in a way that still allowed him to kiss Hans and to brush his fingers against his face as he stroked his other up and down his length. He kissed at his neck and could feel the vibrations as Hans let out another moan. 

“That feel good?” Kristoff purred against his ear. 

“Yes, fuck,” Hans gasped, “Your hand feels so, _oh_.”

Kristoff was enraptured as he watched Hans. The muscles of his face contorting and relaxing with pleasure. A flush building not just on his cheeks, but running down his neck and chest as well. His breath speeding up. It was all better than he had imagined. Hans slowly coming undone from nothing more than Kristoff’s hand. 

Kristoff ran his thumb back and forth across the other man’s lips, relishing the sounds of pleasure that were tumbling out of them. Hans turned his head, taking Kristoff’s thumb into his mouth and biting down slightly on the first knuckle. He locked eyes with Kristoff as he swirled his tongue around the tip and then sucked on it. 

“ _Oh_ ,” Kristoff breathed out at the sight of it. He tightened the grip of his other hand and began to move it in faster and faster strokes. 

Hans lolled his head back and squeezed his eyes tight, “Kristoff, Kris, _fuck_ , I’m-,”

“ _Yes_ , come for me.” 

And Hans did, his mouth falling open into an O as Kristoff felt his cock pulse in his hand. 

“You’re incredible,” Kristoff whispered against his neck. 

He let out a raspy laugh, “You’re not so bad yourself.” Hans looked down at his torso. “You got something to, um...” 

“Oh, right,” Kristoff moved off the bed to retrieve a box of tissues from the top of his dresser. Once they were cleaned up, he returned the box to where it had been. 

When Kristoff turned around he paused to take in the sight of what was there on his bed. Hans was reclined back on his elbows, a position that accentuated the lines of his muscles. His jeans were pulled back up, rezipped but not rebuttoned. His eyes were glassy and dark. His hair disheveled. There was a flush still present across his skin and a light sheen of sweat on his temples. 

He was gorgeous. 

Kristoff noticed that Hans was looking him up and down as well. Kristoff instinctively sucked in his gut. Hans must have noticed the movement because the corner of his mouth quirked up. He motioned with his head for Kristoff to come join him again on the bed. 

Kristoff moved slowly, climbing over the foot of the bed and then crawling until he was on top of Hans. He placed a few small kisses to his shoulders and neck before capturing his mouth again. 

Hans shifted his weight onto one elbow as he brought the other hand up between Kristoff’s legs. “Time to take care of this.” 

Kristoff inhaled sharply at the feel of Hans rubbing him through his jeans. 

“What do you want to do?” Hans asked. 

What did he _want_ to do? 

As Kristoff hovered above Hans, their breaths mingling, a series of images flashed through his mind. The things he would want to do with Hans, to do _to_ Hans. Pinning him up against a wall, pressing him down into the mattress, making him beg and then cry out in pleasure. 

But, it all still felt like too much too soon. He wasn’t ready for any of that yet. 

“I could do the same thing you did to me?” Hans offered, seemingly noticing Kristoff’s indecision. 

Kristoff nodded. Yes, that seemed good and safe. 

“Or I can give you a blowjob?” 

Hans said it with such casualness that it took Kristoff a moment to fully process the words. “Y-yes I would like that very much,” he managed to stammer out. 

“Ok, then get on your back,” Hans ordered. 

Kristoff obliged, quickly moving off of Hans and laying back on the bed. 

Hans positioned himself above Kristoff, kissing him one more time before slowly moving down his body. Kristoff propped himself up onto his elbows so he could watch as Hans settled himself between his legs and, _holy shit_ , this was happening. 

He smirked up at Kristoff as he worked to unbutton and unzip his fly, clearly enjoying Kristoff’s slack jawed expression. Hans hooked his hands in the waistband of Kristoff’s jeans and boxers and began to pull both down at the same time. Kristoff lifted his hips to aid in the removal and sighed at the relief of his erection finally being freed. 

Hans stilled and his mouth parted in surprise. He looked back up with wide eyes and now it was Kristoff’s turn to smirk. It wasn’t the first time his ‘assets’ had received such a reaction, but coming from Hans it gave Kristoff a bit of extra satisfaction. 

“What?” Kristoff asked innocently. 

Hans narrowed his eyes and gave Kristoff a ‘you know what’ look. He wrapped a hand around the base of Kristoff’s cock and ran his tongue in one long lick up the underside before placing a kiss to the tip of the head. 

“Fuuuck,” Kristoff moaned from both the feel and sight of the action. 

Hans repeated it, next licking slowly up one side and then the other - all the while maintaining eye contact. Kristoff’s mind was completely swimming with desire and aching need. 

As Hans went to do it again, Kristoff reached a hand down and grabbed at his hair. It was short, but there was still enough on top of his head for Kristoff to get a good hold. He yanked it back so that Hans was forced to look up at him. 

The corner of Hans’s mouth twitched up. “Well, someone’s feeling a bit impatient.”

“Enough teasing,” Kristoff heard himself growl. He moved Hans’s head so that his mouth was positioned just above the head of his cock. 

“What was it that you wanted me to do again?” Hans asked, a smile still playing at his lips. 

“You know.”

“I want to hear you say it.”

Kristoff swallowed thickly. “Suck my cock.”

“Say ‘please’.”

Kristoff tightened his grip and Hans hissed. 

“Oh, come on,” Hans said in a silky voice, “It’s _polite_.”

Kristoff let out a long breath. “ _Please_ suck my cock,” he said through gritted teeth. 

Hans lowered his head then, taking Kristoff into his mouth and moving his hand up and down in long strokes. 

Kristoff released his hold on Hans’s hair but kept the palm of his hand pressed against the back of his head. He watched Hans’s mouth stretch around his cock and his head and hand move with enthusiasm. Hans was rolling his wrist and was doing this _thing_ with his tongue that was causing Kristoff’s brain to meltdown a bit. 

“Holy _fuck_! Hans, fuck.”

Kristoff couldn’t control the words coming out of his mouth and, despite how much he wanted this last, he couldn’t control how quickly his orgasm was mounting. 

“Hans, I’m gunna,” Kristoff panted out a strained warning, “I’m gunna come.”

Hans hummed as he sucked harder. 

A breathtaking shudder rolled through Kristoff’s body and he bucked his hips up as he spilled into Hans’s mouth. When he came back down to earth Kristoff pulled his pants back up, with some assistance from Hans. 

Hans crawled up the bed to lay down next to him. 

“Hi,” he said with a smile. 

“Hi,” Kristoff breathed out. “That was-, you’re really good at that.”

Hans chucked. “So I’ve been told. What do you want to do now?”

“You mind if we just lay here for a bit?” Kristoff asked. There was a lightness in his body and a fuzzy feeling in his brain. 

“Sure,” Hans said, laying back against the mattress and putting his hands behind his head. 

Kristoff rolled in his direction, slinging an arm across Hans’s middle and laying his head on his chest. Hans stilled and Kristoff heard his breath catch. 

“This ok?” Kristoff asked, suddenly nervous that the act was too intimate. 

“Yes,” Hans answered quickly, lowering an arm down and placing a hand in between Kristoff’s shoulder blades, “Yes, this is fine.”

Kristoff relaxed. He closed his eyes and took in the warmth of their bodies next to each other. Hans began to move his hand, lightly tracing his fingers across Kristoff’s skin. 

“I still can’t believe you actually had a game on the TV when I got here,” Hans said after some time. “Like, I thought ‘come over to watch the game’ was some euphemism. But no. Literally a baseball game.” 

Kristoff began to laugh. “No, you’re right. I fully deserve to be made fun of for that. And for a number of other things probably.”

Hans laughed as well and Kristoff could feel the rumble through his body. “And I wasn’t kidding about the beer by the way. Budweiser is terrible. You better have better stuff next time.”

_Next time._

Kristoff smiled. 

~

“I should probably be heading out,” Hans said after a while. “I have two tests this week and I haven’t even cracked a book the whole weekend.”

They had ended up spending a while on the bed together, just some talking and casual touches. But afternoon was turning into evening. And it was a Sunday, a school night.

“Yeah, I’ve got a ton of school work myself.” Kristoff had barely done any all weekend. It was very unlike him, especially with midterms coming up. 

The two got up from the bed and collected their shirts. 

“This was, um, this was fun,” Kristoff said as they made their way out to the living room. 

“ _Very_ fun, I would say.” Hans gave him a quick kiss on the mouth before heading over to the couch to retrieve his hoodie and shoes. 

Kristoff scratched at the back of his neck. They should probably talk, right? Before Hans left. Figure out what exactly this was and what it was going to be. Him and Anna had a talk after the first time they hooked up and that had served them well. 

He cleared his throat. “Before, on the bed, you said ‘next time’. And, well, I’d like that. For there to be a next time. For this.”

“Me too,” Hans said casually as he zipped up his hoodie. 

“Ok, ok,” Kristoff stuck his hands in his pockets, “So, we should probably-, if there are going to be more times then it would probably be best-, I just want to make sure we’re on the same page about-,” 

“About ‘what this is’?” Hans asked, making air quotes. 

“Yeah.”

“Yeah, that’s probably a good idea,” he said as he walked back over to Kristoff. “Look, I know you have another thing going on. And I have other things going on, too. Quite a lot of other things actually.”

“Always so modest,” Kristoff deadpanned. 

“All I’m just saying is, I think we’re already on the same page here. We’re friends. We’re friends _first_. The rest of it…” Hans shrugged. “We don’t have to define it. It’s just a bit of fun, that’s all. Does that work?”

Kristoff nodded. “That works. And it stays-,”

“And it stays our little secret.” Hans stepped close again. He reached a hand up to cup Kristoff’s cheek and kissed him. After breaking the kiss Hans ran a thumb across Kristoff’s lower lip. “I’ll see you around.”

When the door closed behind Hans, Kristoff was left alone in his apartment at the end of what had turned out to be a long, strange weekend. How much his world had shifted in just a few days. It was nearly unbelievable. It was freeing. It was exciting. 

It was terrifying.


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kristoff needs some stress relief.

“Do you mind if we stop? I want to print out some pictures?” Anna asked Madison as they walked past the photo kiosk in the student union building. 

“Yeah, sure,” Madison said, leaning against the wall and typing away at her phone. 

Anna plugged her own phone into the kiosk and the screen loaded up. She scrolled through, selecting pictures she had taken of things that she wanted to sketch. The screen was filled with other pictures too. Pictures of all her friends. Ryder, Madison and Chloe and the other girls that lived on their floor, Kristoff and Hans, Elsa and Maren. Even a few with Merida from last Friday where Anna was looking particularly drunk. 

Her mouth curled up into a small smile as she looked at them all. 

It had been a while since she had printed out pictures of her friends. Anna always thought it was so much nicer to have physical copies of pictures than to only have them on her phone. She began tapping away on the screen, selecting almost all of them. 

“How many are you printing?” Madison asked in response to all the tapping. She pushed off the wall and came around to look at the screen. 

“A whole bunch,” Anna answered and she continued to tap away. “They’re only 5 cents each.”

“I remember that night,” Madison said with a laugh as she pointed to a picture of herself, Anna, and some of the other girls from their floor. “I still can’t believe you didn’t come out with us last Saturday night.”

“I was tired. And hungover. I got pretty drunk the night before.”

“You were out with those older guys you’re friends with?” she asked, pointing at a picture of Kristoff and Hans. Madison had met them the night of the delta party back at the beginning of the semester. 

Anna bristled at the way Madison described them. “Yes,” Anna said slowly as she hit the print button. “But when you say ‘older guys’ it makes them seem like a couple of creeps. They go here, I have a class with them.”

Madison rolled her eyes. “I didn’t mean it that way. I just meant that they’re not freshmen. Anyway. If you had come out with us Saturday night then you could have met my boyfriend Joe.”

“Boyfriend? So that’s official now?” Anna had never met him, but Madison had talked about this Joe guy before. But it had seemed like a casual thing from Madison’s descriptions. 

“Yeah, pretty much,” Madison said with a shrug. 

Anna knew that with guys, particularly college guys, ‘pretty much’ really meant ‘not at all’. If things weren’t confirmed official and exclusive then guys were almost certainly talking to other girls too. Madison had made a similar mistake early last semester, assuming a thing she had going on with a guy was leading somewhere serious even though the guy only wanted sex. But Madison always got so sensitive whenever that subject came up, so Anna decided to just leave it. 

Anna bent down to collect the stack of printed pictures and put them into the large envelope that she kept tucked in the front cover of her sketchbook. 

{ ~ }

As class ended Hans began to pack up his bag. Anna and Kristoff were doing the same next to him. The three of them had been sitting in the same seats in the last row every Thursday since the first day of class. 

“See you guys tomorrow,” Anna said with a wave as she quickly headed for the door. She had another class right after this one over on the other side of campus, so she was always rushing out the door as soon as class ended.

Hans gave her a small wave and looked back down as he finished packing up his stuff. Suddenly he felt a large presence next to him. He looked up to find Kristoff standing there with a concerned expression.

“Can we talk?” 

~

Kristoff stalked down the hallway peeking into the window of each door as he went.

“What exactly are we doing?” Hans asked as he followed behind him.

“Looking for an empty classroom. Here.” Kristoff swung open the door to one room and pulled Hans in by the arm before closing the door behind them. 

“If you wanted an on-campus quickie we could have gone back to my room,” Hans joked. 

Kristoff groaned as he walked further into the room. 

“Ok. You seem stressed.”

“Ya think?” Kristoff sat down heavy in one of the desks and it creaked under his weight. “I’m really stressed. I’ve been stressed all week.”

Hans felt a creeping dread. “Are you regretting what we did?”

“No,” he shook his head. “No it’s not that.” 

“Ok,” Hans relaxed. 

“I’m worried about tomorrow,” Kristoff continued. “All three of us hanging out together. I’m afraid it’s going to be weird. That I’m not going to be able to not act awkward and then Anna is going to realize something is going on between you and I.”

“You acting awkward isn’t going to make her think something is up. You act awkward all the time.”

“ _Hans_ ,” Kristoff nearly whined. 

“It’s going to be fine,” Hans said. He couldn’t believe he was having this exact same conversation just a few weeks apart. Though, Kristoff seemed like he was going to need a lot more convincing than Anna had needed. “You said you two weren’t serious, right? That you’re not exclusive or anything?”

“Yes,” Kristoff nodded. “Yes, that’s true.”

“Ok, see? You didn’t do anything wrong. And I’m sure she’s sleeping with other people too.” 

“You think so?” Kristoff asked, wringing his hands together. 

_Shit._ “Uh, I don’t know. Maybe?” _Change the subject, idiot._ “What are you doing right now? You have a class?”

“No,” Kristoff shook his head. “I’m done with classes for the day. Was going to spend the rest of the afternoon studying.”

“You can study later. We’re going to do some stress relief right now.”

Kristoff’s eyes went wide. “What? Here?”

“No, not here. Also, I wasn’t talking about _that_. Get your mind out of the gutter, Bjorgman.”

Kristoff rolled his eyes but the corner of his mouth curled up into a smile. 

“I was about to go for a run. And you,” Hans pointed at him, “are coming with me.”

“ _What?_ ” His eyebrows went up and the smile disappeared. 

“Trust me. Running is,” Hans took a deep breath, “amazing for the mind.”

“Running is _painful_.”

“It’ll be great. We go running together. You get out all your bad energy. You’ll feel so much better once we’re done. Seriously, running is the _best_ stress reliever.”

Kristoff stared at him with a disbelieving look. 

“Ok, second best. And if you really want to,” Hans made a click click sound with his mouth and shot Kristoff some finger guns, “after we run, then we can do that too. And if not, then not.” 

Kristoff let out a deep sigh and dragged himself up out of the chair. “Fine.”

~

“I can’t believe you actually go running for fun” Kristoff said as he sat on his couch lacing up his sneakers. 

Hans was leaning up against the counter in the kitchen. He had his running clothes on and a gym bag with a change of clothes at his feet. They had stopped off at his residence hall on the way here. Kristoff had waited outside. 

“It’s not for fun, it’s for lacrosse.” Hans had a whole cardio and lifting schedule that he kept himself on to stay in top shape. 

“You ready?” he asked as Kristoff stood and walked over. 

“No,” he grumbled. “But let's get this over with anyway.”

~

Hans set the pace at a light jog. He usually ran faster, but he didn’t want Kristoff tiring out before they even hit a mile. They took a wide loop around the outside of campus, cutting around the back of the athletic center, passing by the base of North Hill, and weaving through some off campus side streets. 

After almost three miles Hans noticed that Kristoff was starting to struggle a bit. He would normally like to get a few more in, but he could always go for a quick run in the morning to make up the miles. 

“We can head back.” 

“Ok,” Kristoff wheezed. 

Hans turned them down a side street so they could loop back around towards Kristoff’s apartment. 

When they were only a few blocks away from his apartment Hans noticed Kristoff pick up his pace just a bit. Hans followed suit, picking up his own to match Kristoff’s. But, once they were even again, Kristoff began to go even faster. Hans tried to pull even once more, but again Kristoff started running faster.

_Was Kristoff really trying to race?_

Hans decided to stay a step behind and pretended to be struggling, allowing Kristoff to think that he was winning and that Hans was going as fast as he could. When they were half a block from Kristoff’s apartment Hans turned on his jets and sprinted ahead, leaving Kristoff in his dust. Hans smiled as he heard a frustrated groan from somewhere behind him. 

He slowed to a stop and then leaned against the wall next to Kristoff’s front door. “I win,” he said triumphantly as Kristoff approached. 

Kristoff just grunted in response. His skin was red and sweat was dripping down his face. He unlocked his door and staggered into the apartment. 

Hans followed and closed the door behind them. He opened the fridge and took out a bottle of water. “Oh, I’m supposed to ask first before taking these, right?” Hans teased. “May I please have one?” 

Kristoff, meanwhile, was doubled over with his hands on his knees trying to catch his breath. 

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Hans closed the fridge and went to lean back against the kitchen counter. He took a drink of the water as he watched Kristoff. “You ok?” 

“I’m fine,” Kristoff grumbled as he stood up straight. 

“Oh, come on, Kristoff. Don’t be a sore loser. Because, seriously,” Hans was doing his best not to laugh. “On what planet were you ever going to beat me in a race?”

Hans tilted his head way back to take a couple of deep chugs of the water. 

When he looked forward again he could see Kristoff walking towards him, having already closed half the distance between them. Hans barely had time to put the water bottle down on the counter next to him before Kristoff was upon him, one hand on his face and the other on his hip as he was pulled into a crushing kiss. He let it wash over him, kissing him back and wrapping his arms around Kristoff’s waist. 

“Someone’s feeling better,” Hans said after breaking the kiss. “Told ya you’d like running.”

“No, I hated it and we’re never doing that again. I just like having a new way to shut you up.” Kristoff went to lean in for another kiss but Hans placed a hand in the center of his chest and pushed back, stopping him. 

“Before anything else happens, you need to shower.” 

Kristoff blinked. “I’m sorry, what?”

“We just ran a couple of miles and you stink,” Hans gestured at Kristoff’s sweat stained shirt. “I’m up for fooling around, but I’m going to need you to shower first.”

“Are you kidding me right now?” Kristoff looked dismayed. 

“Nope,” Hans shook his head. 

He narrowed his eyes. “You just ran too, you know? You don’t smell much better.”

“Hmm,” Hans pretended to think deeply about that. “I suppose you’re right. Guess I’ll have to join you then.” 

Kristoff’s scowl slowly turned into a smile. 

~

Kristoff stepped forward and out from under the stream of the shower head. Now wet, his once fluffy, messy mop of hair was plastered down flat and it completely covered his eyes. 

“You’re helpless,” Hans laughed as he reached up and swept it to the side, letting his fingers linger on the other man’s face. 

Kristoff blinked down at him and smiled, droplets of water still clinging to his eyelashes, “Thanks.”

Hans tilted his chin up and gave him a small kiss. “Ok, now move so I can wet my hair too.” 

They did a small shuffle to switch positions. 

Hans closed his eyes and tilted his head back into the stream to wet his hair. He enjoyed the feelings of the warm water as he rolled his neck from side to side. When he lifted his head back up and opened his eyes he saw Kristoff watching him. 

But Kristoff quickly looked away, pretending to be concentrating deeply on the shampoo that he was currently working into his hair. 

Hans smiled and decided to admire him back. The hair across Kristoff’s chest was not quite brown, but still darker than the hair on top of his head. He was broad, almost unbelievably so. Hans watched the muscles in his arms and shoulders and Kristoff scrubbed at his hair. Not overly chiseled or defined but undeniably strong. A sign of raw, natural strength instead of the product of hours spent in the gym. 

Hans always considered himself to be above average in both size and strength. And while he expected Kristoff to be stronger, the sheer ease with which Kristoff had broken free from his hold and flipped him over on the bed the other day had taken him by surprise. What else could Kristoff do with that strength? 

“Can you pass the shampoo?” Hans asked, trying to distract himself from such thoughts. He wasn’t sure exactly how much experience Kristoff had with other guys. He still seemed pretty new to all this. So, Hans wanted to let him set the pace when it came to the physical stuff. 

Kristoff grabbed a bottle off the shelf behind him and handed it over. Hans noticed then that there wasn’t anything else on the shelf. 

“Is this really all you have?” he asked, looking down at the bottle. 

“Yeah. It’s an all-in-one. See?” Kristoff pointed at the label. “It’s shampoo, conditioner, and body wash all in one bottle. So I don’t need anything else.”

Hans cringed slightly at the realization that he was going to have to put this crap in his hair.

“Not fancy enough for you?” Kristoff asked in a mocking tone. 

“It’s fine,” Hans responded defensively, not wanting to seem like too much of a priss. He squeezed some out into his palm and handed the bottle back to Kristoff. He could always wash his hair again when he got home later he thought as he began to lather up. 

“Can we switch spots again? I need to rinse.” Kristoff pointed at his sudsy hair. 

“I’m almost done,” Hans said dismissively. 

Kristoff stepped closer to him, a small smile playing at his lips. “Why are you such a pain sometimes?”

Hans shrugged and tilted his head back again to rinse his hair. He felt Kristoff move closer to him again. When he brought his head back up he found that they were practically nose to nose and Kristoff was looking at him with dark eyes. 

“Ok, I’m done.” Hans quickly pulled back the shower curtain and stepped out. 

“I-, wait,” Kristoff said, holding the shower curtain open to look at him, “I still need to rise off.”

Hans gave him a sly smile as he toweled off. “Well hurry up then.” 

He hung the towel up and walked out of the bathroom towards the bedroom, knowing Kristoff’s eyes were still on him. 

Hans came to a stop in front of the bed and could hear the shower turning off followed soon after by quick footsteps coming up behind him. Then strong arms were wrapping around him and lips were on his neck. Hans turned around, keeping himself within Kristoff’s hold, and kissed him as they went tumbling back onto the bed. 

~

Afterwards they laid together in the bed, their bodies well and truly tired. Hans had his eyes closed and his head on Kristoff’s chest, soaking in the warmth. 

“Can I ask you a question?” Kristoff said after some time. 

“Mmhm,” Hans responded lazily. 

“I don’t know if its a stupid question.”

Hans could hear a touch of nervousness in his voice. He lifted his head and turned so he could look at Kristoff’s face. His cheeks were red, but Hans wasn’t sure if he was blushing or if it was from their just completed activities. 

“What is it?”

Kristoff seemed to think it over some more before sheepishly asking his question. “Does it bother you that we’ve hooked up twice now but haven’t had sex?”

Hans looked down at their naked bodies tangled in the sheets and then back up at Kristoff’s face. “Haven’t had sex? What the fuck do you think we just did?”

“We did the same things we did last time.”

“Am I boring you already?” Hans asked with a small smile. 

“ _No_ , I-,” he sighed. “All I mean is we haven’t gone beyond, you know, third base.”

Hans studied his face. In the heat of the moment, all of Kristoff’s shyness melted away into passion. The grabbing and the kissing and the words he would murmur against Hans’s skin. But now, afterwards, embarrassment had crept back in. This was definitely still new territory for Kristoff and Hans knew he had to be sensitive to that. 

“First of all, forget about _the bases_ as a gauge of sexual experience. It’s all a bunch of heteronormative bullshit. Seriously. You can’t measure yourself against that.”

“Ok,” Kristoff nodded.

“But to answer your question: No, I’m not bothered. I’ve been left _very_ satisfied.” Hans dipped his head down to kiss at Kristoff’s neck.

“Can I ask you another question?” There was still a tightness in Kristoff’s voice.

Hans lifted his head back up to look at him. “Sure.”

“It’s a bit of a personal question.”

“Just ask it,” Hans said, feeling pretty sure where this was going. 

“When you have done more, with other guys, what do you usually-. I mean, are you…?” Kristoff held out his hand flat and then flipped it back and forth so that his palm was alternating between facing up and facing down. 

“Use your words,” Hans teased. 

Kristoff let out an exaggerated breath. “Ok, top or bottom?”

“Both.”

“Both,” Kristoff repeated, his eyebrows knitting together.

“I mean, not at the exact same time. That’s not really physically possible. But, yes, I like to do both. It’s called versatile. Or just vers for short.”

“Ok. Ok, interesting.” Kristoff thought it over for a bit before realization dawned on his face. “Wait, _versatile_? You’ve used that word before.”

Hans rubbed his face, feeling slightly embarrassed by the memory. “Yes, yes, I did. Friday night.”

“I remember because it felt out of place and you put a weird emphasis on it when you said it. I didn’t understand why.” Kristoff looked at him suspiciously. “Were you…”

“Yes, Kristoff,” Hans laughed, “I was flirting with you and trying to figure out if you were straight or not.”

“Wow,” Kristoff huffed out a breath and he looked up at the ceiling. “I am _really_ bad at picking up on that kind of thing.”

Hans smiled, remembering Anna’s frustrations on having to resort to pretending to need help with her school work in order to get Kristoff alone. 

“Ok, so, both. You like to do both.” Kristoff’s eyes were still on the ceiling and Hans could see the gears turning in his head. 

“Hey,” Hans said and Kristoff looked back at him. “Just like how you shouldn’t measure yourself against the bases, you shouldn’t measure yourself against me either. You don’t have to check certain sex acts off a list in order to be ‘queer enough’ or to get your offical bisexual certfication or whatever.”

“Ok. What do I have to do?”

Hans sighed. “You’re not listening to me. You don’t have to _do_ anything. You already _are_. You already _were_ before we ever even hooked up. But if it makes you feel better then, here,” Hans lifted a hand and did the sign of the cross over Kristoff’s face and chest causing him to roll his eyes. “I dub thee officially bisexual.”

“Mmm, it takes one to make one?” Kristoff teased. 

“Yes. Just like vampires,” Hans responded matter-of-factly. 

That made Kristoff laugh, loud and bright. His face lit up and his body shook and Hans smiled in response. 

“How new is all of this for you?” Hans asked. 

Kristoff’s smile faded somewhat. 

Hans placed a reassuring hand down on his chest. “I figured it was new, but I wasn’t sure _how_ new. And I know that’s a personal question but you did kinda just ask me if I like getting fucked up the butt so I figured personal questions are ok here.”

Kristoff snorted and ran a hand down his face. “No, you’re right.” He took a deep breath. “It’s very new. Completely new. I-, I had never even kissed a guy before Sunday. Honestly, you’re the first person to ever even know.”

Hans felt the weight of the responsibility that came with what Kristoff was telling him. About being a first. About being the sole keeper of a secret. He thought about the first time he ever kissed a guy. Fifteen years old and nervous as hell. The Fourth of July and a crowded party. The way Kyle had smiled at him once they were alone. Mistakes, regrets, and things Hans had come to accept were always going to be beyond his control. 

It was funny, he thought, how one small moment could change everything. 

“Does that,” Kristoff was looking at him cautiously, “does that bother you?

“No. No, not at all,” Hans assured him. He rubbed his hand across Kristoff’s chest. “You know, if you ever have any questions, or if you ever just want to talk about it, you shouldn’t be embarrassed. You can come to me and we can talk. Judgement free zone, ok? Just like I told you the other day, we’re friends first.”

Kristoff’s expression softened. Warm brown eyes with specks of gold searched his own. A large hand reached up and brushed through Hans’s still damp hair before cupping his face. “Thank you,” Kristoff said quietly. 

_Keep it separate_ , Hans reminded himself as he leaned forward to kiss him. 

“Actually,” Kristoff said, breaking the kiss, “I did have one more question. You used a word before. Heteronor-something.”

“Heteronormative?”

“Yeah. What does that word mean?”

Hans laughed.

“Oh, come _on_.” Kristoff gave him a light shove on the shoulder. “You said judgement free zone.”

“I know, I know. I’m sorry.” Hans did his best to bite back the laugh. “Judgement free starting… now.”


	23. Chapter 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The new normal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before we get to the chapter, I wanted to share a drawing that I ko-fi commissioned from my incredibly talented friend Gabi. Small warning that the drawing is a bit of a spoiler for where this story is going. But, come on, you all know this thing has a happy ending. 
> 
> The drawing is on her tumblr [here](https://gabiwnomagic.tumblr.com/post/626215886097940480/a-cute-kristhanna-drawing-requested-by). Also, if you’re interested in commissioning her too, you can find a link to her ko-fi page [here](https://ko-fi.com/gabiwnomagic).

****

**Friday**

“Hey guys!” Kristoff exclaimed in an uncharacteristically cheerful tone as he opened his apartment door for Anna and Hans.

“Hi Kristoff!” Anna responded, equally cheerful as she walked in with a bounce.

Hans gave him a curious look though as he walked in. 

Anna headed straight for the living room and, with her back turned towards them, Kristoff gave Hans two big thumbs up and a look that said ‘see how perfectly not awkward I’m being?’ 

Hans had to hold in a snicker. Instead he gave Kristoff a small nod and an encouraging thumbs up back. Kristoff was definitely trying way too hard to act like everything was normal, but thankfully Anna didn’t seem to be picking up on that. 

The two of them followed her into the living room and sat down on opposite ends of the couch. 

“So, what are the plans for tonight?” Kristoff asked as he took his books out. 

Anna sat down in her normal spot on the floor in front of the coffee table. “House party, it’s only around the block from here.”

“No whiskey this time, _right_?” he asked her in a teasing tone. 

“No,” she answered pointedly, “and no edibles either, _right_?”

“Don’t worry,” Hans chimed in, “I don’t even have them on me tonight.”

They all exchanged some small laughs as they got their books open. 

Good. This was good. Everything felt normal. Hans could pull this off, this whole hooking up with both of them thing. He knew he was clever enough. A few rules would be needed in order to keep things from getting away from him, though. Mistakes he had made last weekend and gotten away with, but might not get away with again. 

First off, he had to leave Friday nights alone. No trying to hook up with either of them. Friday nights had clearly become a _thing_ for them, and trying to sneak one away from the other was never going to work and could only result in everything blowing up in his face. 

Another was not commenting on their relationship. Hans had crossed a line last weekend when he scolded Kristoff for not doing karaoke with Anna. He had also come close to danger yesterday when he said that Anna was probably sleeping with other people. He needed to seem as disinterested as possible in their relationship. In fact, the less he talked about the other when he was alone with either, the better. 

He wondered though, what would happen if they did find out? It’s not like they could actually get mad at him. They had both asked Hans to keep things secret. And they were both doing the same thing as him, hooking up with both of the other people in this room. No one was cheating on anyone, so no one was _actually_ doing anything wrong. 

The only thing that could potentially make the situation messy was _feelings_. But Hans wasn’t too worried about that happening. He knew how to keep things separate. How to keep it all just sex and friendship. 

And as for Kristoff and Anna? Well, he saw the way they looked at one another. If either of them were going to catch feelings for someone, it would be for each other and not for him. And if and when that ever happened, Hans would simply step away and let them be together. No problem. 

{ ~ }

Anna looked back and forth between the two of them, wondering when Kristoff was going to figure it out. As usual the three of them had found a quiet corner of the party where they could hang out and talk. Hans was currently doing that thing where he would intentionally wind Kristoff up on some random topic. It always took Kristoff way too long to realize what was happening though. 

“All I’m saying is, it seems like a really big plot hole to me,” Hans said before taking another drink of beer from his red cup.

“What?” Kristoff was getting more and more frustrated. “It’s not a plot hole at all. If they flew there on the eagles they would have been spotted right away. The whole point of their mission was secrecy.” 

“Ok, so if they get caught they get caught.” Hans shrugged. “Isn’t the ring this, like, crazy powerful weapon? Why not use it and beat the bad guy?”

“No. _No._ They explain that in the first movie. The ring can only-,”

“Kristoff,” Anna put a hand on his arm. 

“Hold on, the ring can only be used for evil so-,”

“ _Kristoff_ ,” she said with a bit more force.

“What?” He turned to look at her. 

Anna was doing her best to contain her laughter. “He’s fucking with you.” 

“He’s… what?” Kristoff turned back to Hans to find him looking back with a shit eating grin. 

Kristoff’s shoulders sagged. “You were fucking with me.”

Anna couldn’t hold her laughter in any longer. 

“Sorry,” Hans said, laughing as well and not looking at all sorry. “But it’s so much fun to watch you get all nerd-angry about something.” 

“I hate you,” Kristoff said with a shake of his head. 

“No you don’t,” Hans responded. 

“Hey Hans,” a voice said. 

The three of them all looked over simultaneously. There was a guy walking by and smiling at Hans. A good looking guy, by Anna’s jugement, even if he had a bit too much gel in his hair and was wearing a shirt that was a bit too tight. 

“Zach. Hi.” Hans said to him. 

The guy didn’t stop walking, but did give him a wink as he passed them. “Long time no see.”

Hans’s eyes followed him as he made his way across the room. 

“Friend of yours?” Anna asked. 

Hans turned back to look at them. “Friend? No, I wouldn’t say _friend_ , per se.” 

Kristoff crossed his arms as best he could while holding onto his cup. “Well your not-friend is still looking over here at you.” 

“He is?” Hans scrunched his mouth to the side in thought before checking his phone. “Hmm, it is getting to be that time of night anyway.” He held his cup up to the two of them in a small ‘cheers’ motion. “You two have a lovely evening.”

Anna and Kristoff returned the gesture and Hans then turned on his heels and walked off in the direction that Zach had gone. 

It was a good thing, Anna told herself, how easy it always seemed to be for Hans to find someone to hook up with on Friday nights. Even though Hans would probably say it didn’t bother him, Anna would still feel awkward leaving a party with Kristoff before Hans had paired off with somebody. 

Anna felt Kristoff’s hand settle on her hip and she looked up at him. 

“Looks like it’s just us.” He smiled down at her, small crinkles forming in the corners of his warm eyes. 

“Yeah,” she smiled back at him. 

“We can hang out here for a little longer, if you want.”

“No,” Anna put an arm around his back, “We can go back to your place now.”

~ 

Back at Kristoff’s apartment, they stood next to his bed and kissed. His hands were in her hair as hers roamed across his chest. Anna was beginning to work the buttons of Kristoff’s shirt when he broke the kiss. 

“Before we, um,” he motioned with his head towards the bed, “can we talk?”

“Ok,” Anna said, a bit unsure of what he would want to talk about. 

They sat down on the edge of his bed. Kristoff was quiet for a moment before taking one of her hands in his. “Remember how we had that conversation after our first night together? How we talked about what we wanted out of this?”

“Yes, I remember,” Anna said. She was getting nervous now. Did Kristoff want to change things? To become exclusive? Anna knew she didn’t want that, but she also didn’t want to lose Kristoff. What if he made her choose? 

“I wanted to check back in,” he continued. “To make sure we both still want the same things.”

“I know I still want the same thing,” Anna said cautiously. 

“Good, good,” Kristoff smiled. “I still want the same thing too.”

She felt herself relax. “Great. That’s great. I’m glad nothing has changed.”

“Well, um,” Kristoff shifted slightly, “See that’s the thing. I feel like things have changed. Or at least they have for me. I barely knew you when, when _this_ all started. And I know it hasn’t been that long, but, you’ve become a very special person to me, Anna. I want you to know that.” His tone was warm even though it was still slightly hesitant. “Like I said, I’m not looking to change our arrangement, or whatever it is we call this. But, I just needed you to know that.”

Anna felt a lightness in her chest and she moved closer to him on the bed. She had been feeling these same things but didn’t know how to express them. How do you tell someone how much you actually care about them while also wanting to continue to see other people? But here Kristoff was laying it all out. 

“You’re special to me too, Kristoff. I’m really happy that we met and that we have this thing that we have together. And it’s good that we can talk so openly with each other about it.” 

“Right. Right and so I also wanted to tell you that I-,” Kristoff swallowed and looked down at their hands. He opened and closed his mouth but no words came. There seemed to be an internal struggle happening and it caused an ache in her chest to see it. 

Anna brought her other hand up and squeezed his with both of hers. “Kristoff, whatever it is, you can tell me.”

Kristoff looked back up at her. He gave her a small smile, but there was some sadness in his eyes. “I admire you, Anna. How free of fear you can be. I want to be like that. I’m _trying_ to be more like that.” He squeezed her hands back. “So, that’s-, that’s what I wanted to tell you. That and thank you, I guess. For helping me break out of my shell, even if it’s just a little bit.”

Anna felt struck by his words. Kristoff always seemed like he had everything together. He was organized and studious and focused. He had work-study plus an off campus job plus what was probably one of the hardest majors at the school and yet he was always so on top of things and he got amazing grades. So the fact that he admired her for something? That _he_ wanted to be like _her_? That he was crediting her with helping him in such a way? 

“Kristoff, I don’t know what to say.” 

“I know, I’m sorry,” he said quickly. “That is a lot of stuff I just threw out at you. I know I can be awkward and bad at expressing myself. I’m honestly shit all this talking stuff and-,” 

“Hey,” Anna cut him off, “If you keep saying such mean things about someone I care about, then I’m going to have to beat you up.” 

It took Kristoff a second to catch the meaning of her words before he smiled wide and brought a hand up to her cheek. “Thank you.”

“Can we go back to kissing now?” she asked, leaning into him a bit. 

Kristoff’s only answer came in the form of his mouth capturing hers in a kiss, warm and tender. 

{ ~ }

Hans ran his hands over the other man’s ass as he slowly began to push into him. Zach was on his hands and knees in front of him on the bed and he arched his back as Hans filled him. Once he was fully sheathed Hans let out a low hiss of a breath. Zach wasn’t just hot, he was really fucking tight and felt incredible. He took another deep breath before beginning to move in and out of him and finding a rhythm. 

“Ah! Ah! Ah!” Zach began to moan out in a high pitched tone as Hans’s thrusts increased in speed. 

Luckily they weren’t facing each other because Hans cringed. He had forgotten that Zach made those annoying sounds during sex. 

Hans put one of his hands on Zach’s shoulder and pressed down. He went along with it, lowering the top half of his body down onto the bed while keeping his hips up in the air. 

His sounds were now muffled by the pillow, allowing Hans to close his eyes, block him out, and let himself get lost in the sensation. You didn’t actually have to like someone to enjoy fucking them. 

{ ~ }

“Lift my leg,” Anna panted. 

Kristoff moved to follow her instructions, taking hold of one of her legs that were wrapped around his waist and pulling it up. He kissed along the inside of her shin and ankle, his hand running along her high heel, before hooking her leg over his shoulder and leaning forward again and increasing the pace of his thrusts. 

“Krist-, _fuck_ ,” Anna gasped at the new angle. 

With everything that happened last Friday night, it had been two whole weeks since they had done this and, _god_ , Anna missed it. She had missed being with Kristoff in this way. Had missed him and his hungry kisses and his warm touches and the way his body felt against hers. 

Was that a bad sign? To be missing him after such a short time? Was it too clingy? 

But then Kristoff was kissing her again and she didn’t care about any of that anymore. Anna moved a hand down in between them, seeking out her clit and her second release of the night. 

Kristoff broke the kiss and leaned his forehead against hers. She could see that his eyes were looking down and watching her fingers move in quick circles. 

“ _Anna_. Oh, Anna,” he gasped and she could see how close he was. 

“You can come this time, when I come,” she told him. It was something that Anna had learned that Kristoff liked, her telling him when he was allowed to come. She had to admit that she got something out of it too - this large, strong man so eagerly following her every command in bed. 

As her orgasm crested, Anna cried out. She felt Kristoff’s rhythm falter and heard his low grunts. She clutched him tightly, basking in the euphoria that always accompanied them climaxing together. They laid there for a moment, still and catching their breaths before Kristoff rolled off her. But then he pulled her close, chest to chest, and kissed her on her forehead. 

“I missed this,” he whispered against her hairline. 

Anna placed a hand against his broad chest and nuzzled her face deeper into his neck. “Me too.”

  


****

**Saturday**

Kristoff woke slowly. Anna’s hair tickled his face. Her back was pulled in close against his chest so he couldn’t see her face, but could hear her heavy breathing and so he knew she was still asleep. He always woke before her and would usually need to eventually wake her up.

It was such a good feeling, waking up with her in his arms. But it also felt like a dangerous thing to get used to. 

He rubbed his thumb across the back of her hand. 

Kristoff had come so close to telling her last night. Not about the thing with Hans specifically, but about himself. They were sharing their feelings and it had seemed like a moment for honesty. 

So much about how Kristoff viewed that part of himself had changed in such a short period of time. He had assumed then that it would make saying... _it_... out loud easier. That he would be able to simply look at Anna and all the words would come flowing out. But, in the end, all his old fears and doubts were still holding him back. 

He thought about the things Anna had said to him. 

_‘You’re special to me too, Kristoff.’_

_‘Kristoff, whatever it is, you can tell me.’_

Would she still feel the same if she knew his secrets?

He pressed a light kiss to the back of her head and closed his eyes again. They didn’t need to wake up quite yet. 

{ ~ } 

Anna pulled her keys out of her purse and began to unlock the door to her room. 

Chloe was walking up the hall in a pair of sweatpants and a baggy tee shirt. She smirked as she looked at Anna in her dress and heels. “Walk of shame?”

Anna rolled her eyes and smiled as she opened the door. “No shame here.” 

“You coming out tonight?” Chloe called out as she continued to walk.

“Definitely!” Anna answered before closing her door behind her. 

But first, a nap. 

{ ~ }

Kristoff flipped through his class notes and to-do lists. He groaned as he ran a hand through his hair. Studying, assignments, projects. There was just so much. He’d have to buckle down and work straight through from now until the start of his shift tonight. 

He could leave some work for tomorrow, of course. But he also wanted to allow himself some free time tomorrow. Just in case. 

{ ~ }

Anna pushed through the crowd on her way from the bathroom back to where her friends were hanging out. The house party they were at that night was completely packed, so it was slow going. 

“Anna, hey!” she heard someone call out over the loud music. 

She whipped her head around in the direction of the voice to see Hans smiling at her from a couple of feet away. 

“Hey yourself,” she called back. 

Hans said something else but Anna couldn’t hear him. She pointed at her ear and shook her head. He pointed over to the side of the room and started to move in that direction. Anna followed. 

“Funny seeing you here,” Hans said to her once they were a few steps down a side hallway, away from the crowd and noise. 

“Yeah?” Anna looked back out over the party. “Seems like the whole school is here.”

“Who’d you come with tonight?” he asked. 

“My friends from my dorm,” Anna pointed in the general direction of where she had been heading. “You?” 

“Oh, just my suitemates. They’re annoying most of the time, but they can be fun to drink with.”

“They’re teammates of yours, right?”

“Yep,” he nodded. 

They both fell quiet then. There was a whole house full of people just steps away from them, but for a quick moment it felt as if they were alone. The two of them just standing there watching each other. 

Anna twisted her cup around in her hands. She was reminded of the first night they were together. When she had seen Hans looking at her from across that crowded party and how it had sent a tingle down her spine. He was looking at her the same way now. 

“You look really good tonight,” he said finally. “That’s a nice dress.” 

Anna tilted her head to the side. “Hans, are you trying to use a line on me right now?”

“Do I need to?” he asked in a playful tone. “Or is this already a sure thing?”

She huffed out a laugh and casually looked back in the direction of the party. If he was going to try to run lines on her then she could play hard to get. 

“I’m serious though.” Hans took a step closer to her and Anna looked back at him. At his sharp features and sly smile and green eyes that were dancing across her face. “Assuming no one else at this party catches your attention, can I go home with you tonight?”

_Fuck yes._

“I suppose that would be ok.”

“Lucky me.” Hans smiled. “I won’t keep you from your friends, but, I’ll see you later then?”

She nodded and he turned and headed back toward the party, disappearing into the crowd. Anna let out a long breath as she watched him walk away. 

{ ~ }

Hans spent the night listening to his suitemates dumb stories and hot sports takes. But his eyes kept traveling across the party to where Anna was. She spent a lot of the night dancing with her friends. He wished he could go over and dance with her. That kind of thing wasn’t on the table though. They couldn’t do anything in public. 

{ ~ }

Anna’s heels clicked against concrete as she walked down the sidewalk, the street was quiet except for the distant sounds from the party behind her. Hans was waiting under a street light on the corner at the end of the block. They had staggered their departures from the party, coordinated by text.

“Hi,” Anna said as she reached him. 

“Hi,” he responded. The yellow glow from the street light made his hair and eyes shine. 

“Your place or mine?” Hans asked. 

“Mine works.”

“Sounds good.” 

As they began to walk back to campus side by side, Anna felt Hans’s arm reach around behind her and his hand come to rest on her hip. 

“Oh.” She quickly stepped away from his touch. 

“Shit, I-,” Worry flashed across Hans’s face and he lifted his hands, palms out. “I am so sorry, I thought-”

“No, no, it’s ok. It’s not that I don’t want you to,” Anna reassured him. “It’s only, we’re still in public.”

“Right. Of course.” He lowered his arms to his sides. 

There was an awkward moment of silence before Anna started to walk again, Hans following her. 

Shit, now things were weird. Anna chewed on her lip. The guilty look that had been on Hans’s face made her feel bad. Because he hadn’t actually done anything wrong. Anna knew he liked to put on a player persona but she also knew that, deep down, Hans was a good guy. 

Anna stopped walking. “I’m sorry. I feel like I should explain more.”

“You don’t have to,” Hans said, stopping as well. 

“No, I-,” she fiddled with the ends of her hair. “I know it’s not a very likely thing to happen, but, Kristoff is out somewhere in this neighborhood delivering pizzas so he could turn down this block in his car and see us and-,”

“Anna,” he cut her off gently. “I understand. And you’re right, I wasn’t thinking.” Hans made a show of sticking his hands in his pockets. “Hands to myself.”

Hans seemed sincere in his understanding. They exchanged smiles before continuing their walk back to campus. 

“Just so you know,” he said after half a block, “While I’ll keep my hands to myself in public, once we get behind closed doors my hands are going everywhere.”

“Is that a promise?” Anna asked in a coy tone. 

Hans laughed and then bit his lip. “Let’s walk faster.” 

{ ~ }

Kristoff pinched the bridge of his nose. “Look, this is the address on the ticket so _someone_ here ordered pizza.” 

The guy who answered the door still seemed unconvinced. “I don’t know. Maybe it was Jimmy.” He turned around to shout backwards into the house “Jimmy? JIMMY!”

What looked to be a very high guy came stumbling into view. “What?” 

“Did you order pizza?” his friend asked, pointing at Kristoff.

Jimmy’s eyes went wide and he came rushing over. “Yes!” 

Kristoff moved the pizza out of his grasp. “Pay first,” he said, having long ago learned to not trust people in a state like that to remember that the pizza they ordered would actually cost money. 

“Oh, right,” the guy dug through his pockets and shoved a bunch of crumbled bills in his direction. 

Kristoff snatched the cash out the guy’s hand, handed him the pizza, and then trudged back to his car. Fucking idiots. 

{ ~ }

“OK, the most important rule is that you can only look at what I say is ok for you to look at. Promise?” Anna was clutching the leatherbound sketchbook in her hands and was looking at Hans as if this were a solemn oath. 

He traced his finger in the pattern of an X on his chest. “Cross my heart.”

Hans was sitting up in her bed with her sheets pulled up around his waist. He was naked underneath as all of their clothes had ended up down on the floor in their earlier hurry to get undressed. All of their clothes except for his undershirt, but Anna had claimed that for herself and was currently wearing it. He liked the way it looked on her, and not just because the fabric was thin and white and didn’t actually do that much to hide what was underneath. 

As Anna went to open the sketchbook a large envelope fell out. 

“What’s that?” he asked. 

“It’s just some printed out pictures. I keep them tucked into the cover.”

“Seems like an easy way to lose them.”

“Whatever, the originals are all on my phone and printing them is cheap.” Anna tossed the envelope to the side and went back to looking in the sketchbook. 

She held the book in such a way that he couldn’t actually see anything as she flipped through the pages, her bottom lip caught between her teeth. 

“Ok, this one is ok for you to see.” Anna turned the sketchbook around and placed it in his lap.

Hans’s mouth fell open as he looked down at a near perfect rendering of the school’s student union building. The topic of Anna’s art had come a couple of times when the three of them would hang out, usually brought up by Kristoff. He would say how good it was (apparently _he’d_ been allowed to see her art plenty of times already) but Anna was always so dismissive of it that Hans wasn’t actually sure what to expect. 

But this was beyond idle doodling or something that was just a hobby. She had a real talent. 

“Anna,” he said, hoping he sounded sincere. “This is really great.”

She covered her face with one of her hands as if she were embarrassed. “Yeah, I don’t know.” 

“Can I turn the page?”

“Um,” Anna thought for a moment, “Yes, the next page is safe.”

Hans turned the page to find some drawing of birds. The detail on their feathers was amazing. 

“Why isn’t this your major?” he asked her. 

Anna looked away. “It’s not really something people go to college to do.”

Hans furrowed his brow, “I mean, they literally do. There’s a whole department. In fact, Arendelle U has a really great art department.”

He absentmindedly turned the page again and then froze at what was there on the paper. It was a drawing of Kristoff asleep in bed. Hans tilted his head to the side as he looked at it. 

“ _Hans_ ,” Anna pulled the sketchbook out of his hands and snapped it closed. “You weren’t supposed to turn the page again.”

“Sorry, I forgot.” He honestly had. Hans had gotten sucked into the drawings and turned the page without thinking. 

Anna was blushing deeply. “That’s so embarrassing. I didn’t mean for you to see that.”

“You-, you don’t have to be embarrassed. It’s ok.” 

Hans wanted to tell how great the drawing was. Tell her how perfectly she had captured all of the things that made Kristoff handsome. His soft hair and strong features and the line of his shoulders. But he obviously couldn’t do that. And Hans reminded himself of his rules. He needed to move the conversation away from Kristoff. 

He gave her a teasing smile. “You have any drawings like that of me in there?” 

“No,” Anna snorted. “How could I? I’ve never seen you asleep.”

“That’s true. But I can always pose for you.” He dramatically threw himself back on the bed with his arms above his head. 

“You’re ridiculous.” 

“Come on, Anna,” he said in a feathery voice. “Draw me like one of your French girls.” 

“Oh, shut up.” She gave him a whack on the chest

“Ow!” He made an exaggeratedly pained expression and clutched at the spot where she hit him. 

Anna rolled her eyes as she put her sketchbook down next to her. “That didn’t hurt _that_ bad.” 

“It did. And now I get some payback.” He grabbed her, tickling her on her sides. 

“Hans! No!” she shrieked with laughter and tried to squirm away from him, “Let go!”

“Nuh-uh, I’ve got you,” Hans pulled her body down against his. 

Anna swung a leg over him so that she was straddling him and Hans let his hands come to rest on her hips. Even though he had stopped trying to tickle her, she was still giggling before she pressed her mouth against his. 

Hans knew it was getting late and he’d be leaving soon, but he could kiss her a little bit longer.

  


****

**Sunday**

Anna was woken by heavy knocking on her door.

“Anna!” Ryder’s voice called. “Anna, are you awake?”

She groaned and she pulled herself upright and hopped down off her bed. She shuffled over to the door and opened it. 

“Hey, were you awake?” Ryder asked. 

“I am now,” Anna mumbled, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. 

“Sorry, I wouldn’t have come if it weren’t important.”

“What is it?”

“It’s already after 10:30. If we don’t get to the dining hall soon for breakfast they’ll run out of waffles.”

Anna banged her forehead lightly against the door frame. “Ok, give me five minutes.” 

{ ~ } 

Hans flipped through one of his textbooks as he sat cross legged on his bed. He should spend some time studying Calc, he figured. That and get ahead of some reading for Lit. It was midterms next week and he really needed to stop letting whole weekends go by without cracking a book. 

His phone buzzed and he looked down to see a text from Kristoff. 

_you free this afternoon?_

He closed his textbook. He could study later. 

~

Hans looked over into the living room as he stepped into Kristoff’s apartment. 

“No game on the TV?” he asked. 

“Ah, no,” Kristoff stuck his hands in his pockets. “I learned my lesson with that.” 

He could go through a whole thing, find some teasing why to goat Kristoff into kissing him first like he did the last two times. But Kristoff was standing there looking so good. And they both knew the reason why Hans was there. 

Hans stepped closer, grabbed Kristoff by the front of his shirt with both hands, and pulled him down into a kiss. Kristoff seemed stunned for a moment before wrapping his arms around Hans and pulling him tighter against his body and kissing him back. They slowly began moving, lips still locked, over to the bedroom. 

~

Hans pulled his jean back up over his hips and rolled onto his side to face Kristoff. “What do you want to do now?

“I could eat,” he answered, placing a hand on Hans’s waist. 

Hans brushed some of Kristoff’s hair back from his sweat slick forehead. “Fredo’s?”

“Eh,” Kristoff made a face. “We ate Fredo’s Friday night and then I spent all last night smelling it while working. I need something different. I’m kinda in the mood for some DQ. What do you think?”

“Never had it before. Is there one near campus?”

“There’s one in town, I can drive,” Kristoff swung his legs off the bed and stood. 

“Is it any good?”

“It’s great. Burgers and fries and shit like that. They also have sundaes.” Kristoff picked his shirt up off the floor and flashed Hans that dopey smile of his. “We can get Sunday sundaes.”

Hans snorted as he pulled his own shirt back on. 

{ ~ } 

Once they had gotten their food, they came back to Kristoff’s apartment to eat. They were on his couch, and sitting closer than they normally would on a Friday night. 

“So, what do you think?” Kristoff asked as Hans took the last bite of his burger. 

“It’s good,” Hans said. “Not as good as Five Guys. But pretty good.”

“Ah, well, I’ve never had Five Guys, so I can’t compare.”

“Really?”

Kristoff shrugged. “There aren’t any around here.”

“Well. Their burgers are better. Trust me.” 

“How are their sundaes?” Kristoff asked before eating another spoonful of the sundae he had gotten from DQ. 

“They don’t have sundaes,” Hans responded as if it had been a silly question. 

“Lame. And I can’t believe you didn’t get one today. It was Sunday sundaes and you didn’t get a sundae.”

“Well, I’m not a child who needs a dessert after every meal.”

“ _Pssht_. You should try it, it’s good.” Kristoff scooped up a spoonful and held it out. 

“I believe you, I don’t need to try.”

“Try it,” he said in a sing-song voice. 

Hans shot him an annoyed glare.

“Try it, try it, tr-,”

“What’s with you and always wanting to shove things in my mouth?” Hans cut him off with a smirk.

“I-,” the words caught in Kristoff’s throat and he felt his cheeks getting warm. 

Images from earlier flashed through his mind. Not just the blowjob that Hans had given him, but the fingers that Kristoff had stuck in Hans’s mouth while jerking him off. It wasn’t something he had been into before, but Hans had started it their first time together and, _fuck_ , that mouth of his was so sexy that Kristoff couldn’t help himself.

“That was a joke,” Hans said, placing a hand on Kristoff’s thigh. 

“I know.” 

Hans looked at him for a moment before motioning towards the ice cream. “Ok, I’ll have a taste of the stupid sundae.” 

He held the spoon up again, assuming that Hans would take it out of his hand. Instead, Hans leaned in with a mischievous look in his eyes and put his mouth over the spoon before slowly pulled away, taking the ice cream with him. Kristoff’s own mouth went dry and he felt a tightening in his pants. 

“Mmm,” Hans said once he swallowed. “You were right, that is good.” 

Kristoff jabbed the spoon back into the sundae before quickly putting down on the coffee table and pulling Hans in for a kiss. His mouth was cold and sweet from the ice cream and the hand he had on Kristoff’s thigh began to slide upward. 

“Back to the bed?” Kristoff mumbled against his mouth. 

“Fuck yeah.” 

{ ~ }

“Ryder, can you get a pot of water going to the pasta? And Anna, can you chop the lettuce for the salad?” Elsa, as normal, was handing out orders for Family Dinner Night as she stood near the stove and stirred the sauce. 

“Chop the lettuce. Of course.” Anna went to retrieve the cutting board and large knife. “Why is that always my job?”

“Because you can’t burn lettuce,” Elsa responded dryly. 

“I mean, you can,” Maren pointed out. “But it means something has gone horribly wrong.” 

Anna rolled her eyes. “I feel like I could be a good cook if I got the chance.”

“I’m sure you can be,” Elsa said, returning her attention to the sauce, “But you’re not getting to experiment in our kitchen.” 

{ ~ }

“Want to do this again next Sunday?” Hans asked, breaking their kiss. Kristoff’s hands were firmly locked on his hips and he had Hans pinned up against his front door. They had been saying goodbye but got a little carried away. 

“Yeah,” Kristoff nodded, “Yeah, I definitely do.” 

They exchanged one last kiss before Hans headed out. 

Hans stuck his hands in the pockets of his zip hoodie as he began his walk back to campus.  
The days were getting longer, but it was almost evening and so the sun was sitting low in the sky. 

As he walked, he thought back over his busy last few days. When was the last time he was with three different people all in one weekend? Actually, had he ever done that? Or had the most ever been two? It was fun, he thought, these little accomplishments that he could check off in his mind. 

How naive he had once been, to think he would only ever want to be with one person for his whole life. Spending the rest of your life with the person you lost your virginity to? How could he have ever thought that would have made him happy? 

At least he was smarter than that now. But someone didn’t need to be that smart to understand simple truths: Love was pain. Fucking was fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to Liv for giving me the “Sunday sundae” idea.


	24. Chapter 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone is trying to survive midterms. Anna and Hans learn something new about Kristoff.

(Anna): _hans, you have a home game tomorrow, right?_

(Hans): _yea_  
(Hans): _2pm_

(Anna): _i’ll be there!_  
(Anna): _kristoff, you’re coming too_

(Kristoff): _i can come for the beginning but will need to leave at halftime_   
(Kristoff): _midterms to study for_

(Hans): _booo_  
(Hans): _anna, help me boo this man_

(Anna): _booooo_

(Kristoff): _guys_  
(Kristoff): _it’s midterms_

(Hans): _boooo_

(Anna): _BOOOO_

(Kristoff): _ok_  
(Kristoff): _fine_

(Anna): _YAY_  
(Anna): _:D_

{ ~ }

Hans stutter stepped and spun, moving past the opposing player with ease and heading straight for the goal. He switched his stick to the other hand, faked high, shot low. Score!

A cheer went up and Hans felt that jolt of electricity that always came with making a goal. He received some congratulatory fist bumps and pats on the helmet from his teammates. 

As he jogged back to centerfield, Hans glanced over at the cheering crowd. They were always easy to spot up in the stands. Anna with her bright red hair and Kristoff a head taller than anybody else. He allowed himself a moment to look up at them, to smile and wave - even though they wouldn’t be able to see the smile with his helmet on - before getting back into game mode and ready for the next faceoff. 

{ ~ }

Anna felt her eyes getting blurry and her brain going numb as she sat at a table in the library studying. Midterms had barely begun but they were already killing her. Her fingers twitched to ditch the school work and grab the sketchbook out of her bag instead. 

“Anna?”

She looked up to see Merida walking in her direction. 

“Oh my god,” Anna sat up straighter, her mood lifted, “Merida, how are you? I haven’t seen you since-,” 

“Since drunk karaoke,” she finished Anna’s sentence for her as she came to a stop next to the table Anna was sitting at. 

“Yeah exactly.” Anna chuckled at the memory. Or, at least, what she was able to remember from that night. 

“But I’m good, I’m good. Just, you know. _Midterms._ Ugh.” 

“Oh, _I know_ ,” Anna said with a small laugh, gesturing at the books in front of her. 

Merida rocked back and forth on her heels and tugged on the shoulder straps of her bag. “You want a study buddy? If not, no big deal. I just always study better if I’m sitting with someone.” 

Anna smiled. “You know what? I’m exactly the same way. Pull up a chair.”

Merida smiled back and sat down at the table. She began to unload her bag, taking out what was a particularly large textbook. It fell to the table with a dull thud. Anna peered over to read the title. _Chemical Principles II_. 

“What’s your major?” 

“Biochem,” Merida answered. 

Anna thought about that for a bit. “So, it’s both biology _and_ chemistry?” she asked, hoping that didn’t come off as too dumb of a question.

“Basically. It’s a good pre-med major.”

“Oh wow, pre-med,” Anna felt herself leaning forward a bit, “So, you’re going to be a doctor someday?”

“Yes,” Merida beamed. “Or, that’s the plan anyway. I’ve wanted to be a doctor for as long as I can remember. So even when it’s a bit much,” she affectionately patted the cover of the giant textbook, “I still love it and nerd out about it.”

“That’s so cool,” Anna said before looking back down at her own textbook. _Introduction to Decision Making in Management._ She twisted her pen around in her hands a few times before getting back to studying. 

{ ~ }

Kristoff sat hunched in the desk and flipped through his flash cards as other students began to filter into the classroom. They had a midterm in this class today so he wanted to make sure he used every last second to prepare. 

“Hi Kristoff.”

He glanced up to see Maren sliding into the desk next to him. 

“Hey,” he said quickly before returning to his flash cards. 

Kristoff flipped through a few before realizing how he had just brushed her off. Again. He was always shit at small talk but, come on, he should actually _try_ to have a conversation for once. Besides, Maren was nice. Not to mention Anna’s sister’s girlfriend. 

He shuffled his flashcards back together into a stack and put them away in his bag. 

“I, uh, I didn’t see you at the lacrosse game this week,” he said, latching onto one of the few things he knew they had in common outside of their shared major. 

Maren picked her head up and looked at him, seemingly surprised to hear him speaking. “I had class.” 

“Right,” he nodded, not sure what else to say. 

Thankfully Maren kept the conversation going. She turned sideways in her seat to face him fully. “Ryder says they lost, so I’m not sure I missed much.” 

“Yeah, yeah, that’s true.” Kristoff drummed his fingers on the desk. “But the score was close there for a while. An exciting game even though, yeah, they lost.”

“I should be at the next home game. See you there?” 

“Yeah, yeah definitely.” 

_Fuck, why was he saying the word ‘yeah’ so much?_

“Desks clear,” Professor Oaken boomed from the front of the classroom, indicating their midterm was about to start. 

“Good luck,” Maren said, turning forward again. 

“You too.” 

{ ~ }

Hans was sitting on his bed and studying when there was a knock at his door. 

“Come in,” he called out.

The door swung open and one of his suitemates, Torres, was standing there. “Westergaard. I’m dying. You’ve got to help me.”

Hans sighed. Torres was always so dramatic. “What is it?”

He held up a textbook, _Macroeconomic Theory_. “It’s Macro, man. I’m so lost and my midterm is tomorrow and I think I’m going to fail. You took this class last semester, right?” 

“I did.” And he had found it to be pretty easy class. 

“Can you help me?”

“I’ve got my own midterms to study for.” 

Torres clutched the textbook tighter and grimaced. “Pleeeeease?” 

Hans groaned as he let his head fall back against the wall. “Alright,” he waved him over. 

“Thanks man,” Torres said, walking into the room and sitting down on the bed. “You’re a lifesaver.” 

“Yeah, yeah,” Hans said dryly as he closed his own textbook and put it to the side. 

{ ~ }

“You guys excited about break?” Anna asked Hans and Kristoff before taking another bite of her slice of pizza. This was their last Friday night together before break. They had so quickly fallen into such a nice routine on these nights. Even though she was looking forward to some time off from classes, she was going to miss this. 

“Yes, for sure,” Kristoff said as he walked back into the living room from the kitchen with his third slice. “It’ll give me a lot of time to get caught up on some school work. I have a few semester long projects that I’ve fallen a bit behind on.” He sat down on the couch and took a big bite. 

Hans rolled his eyes. “Break is for taking a _break_ , Kristoff. Not for doing more work.”

“D’n’t tell me ‘ow to enjoy m’break,” Kristoff responded with his mouth full. 

“Well _I’m_ excited,” Anna cut in, deciding to stop another one of their playful bickering sessions before it could even get started. “At least for everything except the long drive home.”

Kristoff swallowed his food. “How long of a drive is it to the city?”

“Three and a half _hours_. And that’s with normal traffic. One time, last semester, Elsa and I got stuck in the Bronx for what felt like _forever_.”

“Well, however long it takes you, it’s another hour on top of that for me,” Hans added. 

“How are you getting home?” Anna asked him, knowing that living on campus meant not having a car. 

“There is a guy on my team with a car that lives not that far from me on the island. He lets me hitch a ride with him as long as I pay for gas. So, I just put it on my credit card and don’t have to worry about it.”

“Well that’s lucky.”

“Yeah because it’s either that or the bus. Which, you know, _gross_.” Hans made a face before shoving some more pizza in his mouth. 

Anna turned to Kristoff. “And obviously you have your own car for getting home.”

“Right,” Kristoff nodded as he looked down and fiddled with the half a slice on his plate. “Well, I am home.” 

Anna scrunched up her face in thought. What did he mean he _was_ home? She looked over at Hans and he seemed to be thinking the same thing. 

“Aren’t you from way up north?” Hans asked. 

Kristoff quickly glanced at the two of them. “I’m from up there, yes. I live here now though.”

“But you don’t go back to visit your family?” The words came out of her faster than she could realize just how invasive they were. 

Kristoff winced slightly and looked back down. 

Anna quickly did a mental scan trying to remember any time that Kristoff had mentioned his family, but she came up with nothing. He wasn’t that big of a talker and Anna knew she could ramble on about things and dominate conversations. But had she really never asked him about his family before? Had it really never come up? How was that possible? Gulit swept her, both for asking about it in such an insensitive way now but also for never asking about it in a more appropriate way before. 

“I’m sorry,” she said before he could answer. “I shouldn’t have asked that.” 

“No, no it’s fine. You guys might as well know.” 

Kristoff put his plate down on the coffee table and then rubbed his palms across the top of his knees. He took a deep breath and seemed to gather his thoughts for a moment before speaking again. 

“My mom died when I was a baby, so I was raised by my grandma. She got sick, cancer, and died around the time I was finishing up community college. I stayed up there while I took a break from school but then when I eventually started at Arendelle I moved here,” he gestured around at the apartment. “I’ve got no siblings or cousins or anything, so, there’s nothing really up north for me anymore. Nobody to go back and visit.”

Anna felt her heart sink at the idea of Kristoff suffering so much loss. “How-,” she began, but then stopped herself. 

“How did my mom die?” he offered. 

“Yeah.”

“Car crash.”

“Your dad?” Hans asked cautiously. He had a solemn look on his face and his hands were clasped together tight in his lap. 

Kristoff shrugged. “Who knows. Took off long before I was born.” 

Anna remembered the conversation her and Kristoff had when she first asked him about his age. He had said money was tight around the time he graduated from community college and so he had to take some time off from school. How he had to spend some time working and saving up money before he was able to start on his four year degree here at Arendelle. 

She had never asked Kristoff any more questions about it. Money always felt like such an awkward topic of conversation. But now there was a clearer picture. Kristoff, only two years out of high school, losing the only family member he had ever known and being left to make it on his own. Anna realized that, despite how close they had gotten this semester, there were still whole chapters of Kristoff’s life that she knew nothing about. 

“I’m so sorry, Kristoff,” were the only words she could find to say. 

“Yeah, Kristoff, I’m sorry about all that,” Hans added. 

“It’s ok.” He crossed his arms and then uncrossed them to scratch at the back of his neck. “It was a while ago now, so, its ok.”

Anna and Hans sat silently watching him, not knowing what to do or say next. 

“So, what’s the plan for tonight?” Kristoff asked, clearly looking for the conversation to move on. 

“Party at omega pi.” 

“Sounds like fun,” he smiled at her and it only seemed slightly forced. 

Anna smiled back before taking another bite of her pizza. 

{ ~ }

That night at the party Hans was telling Anna and Kristoff the story of when, last year as freshmen, him and some of the other rookies on the lacrosse team TP’ed a neighboring dorm. They had stolen a giant bag of toilet paper out of the supply closet of their own dorm and snuck out in the middle of the night. 

“So, we were just about done when a campus security guard showed up.”

Anna made a light gasp and her eyebrows went up.

“ _Exactly_. So, we all bolt in different directions. And the security guard, dumb fuck that he is, picks me as the one he’s going to chase after.”

That earned a chuckle out of Kristoff.

“I see a chain link fence and I think, ‘ok, nice easy means of escape’. So I climb it, hop over, keep running. But then I look back and the stupid secuirty guard is trying to climb over too. He makes it most of the way, but the seat of his pants gets caught on the chain link fence.”

Kristoff had been in the middle of taking a drink of his beer when Hans said that last part. He sputtered and brought a hand up to his face to swallow. “Oh my god,” he choked out with laughter. 

“Yeah,” Hans continued on, “And then when he tried to wiggle free his pants just ripped open and his whole ass was hanging out.”

Kristoff and Anna both started laughing hard and Hans smiled along with them. 

Ok, so, Hans might have been embellishing the story a bit. But these were things that he knew would make Kristoff laugh and smile. Things that would pull him away from the shadow that had settled over his features earlier in the night when Hans and Anna had accidentally stumbled upon a sad chapter in his life. 

Hans hadn’t known any of that stuff about Kristoff’s family. Probably because he never asked. But then again, Hans never really asked anybody about their family. Mostly because he never really wanted to talk about his own. 

Knowing that Kristoff has been on his own for a number of years made Hans feel sympathetic to him. But there was also some extra admiration for the guy now too. Everything that Kristoff had, he had earned on his own. His apartment was _his_ , his car was _his_ , everything he had was _his_. Kristoff was putting himself through college and didn’t rely on anybody else. 

Hans wished he could say the same for himself. Because getting things for free still came with a price. One day, though. One day he wouldn’t need his dad’s money anymore. 

{ ~ } 

Kristoff had his arm around Anna as they walked back from the party to his apartment. 

“I’m sorry about earlier tonight,” she said when they were about halfway back. “I shouldn’t have blurted out that question about your family. I should’ve been more sensitive about it.”

“No,” he gave her a small squeeze. “You’re fine. It’s not like it’s something that I was trying to hide or anything like that. I just don’t usually bring it up because it’s kind of a heavy topic.”

Anna snaked an arm around his lower back. “You know, you don’t have to hold back things from me just because you think they might be heavy. I’m always here if you want to talk.”

_Would you still feel that way if you really knew?_

“Thank you,” he said. 

“What was she like, your grandma?” 

Kristoff smiled, the memories giving him some warmth. “Grandma Bulda was the best. She was a little lady but she had a very big personality.”

“Little?”

“Yeah, I was as tall as her by the time I was twelve.”

That made Anna giggle. 

“She always got so excited about my schooling,” he continued on. “No one in our family had ever finished college, so it was a big deal to her. I do get sad sometimes, when I think about how she won’t be there to see me graduate. But then I think about how proud she would be of me, and…”

Kristoff trailed off, not able to find any more words. It was strange sometimes to think how long he had been without her and how close he was now to achieving the dreams she always had for him. 

“I imagine it must have been a lonely time for you, when you lost her,” Anna said as they turned the corner onto his block.

That wasn’t completely true, Kristoff hadn’t been completely alone at the time. The loneliness came later. After time spent pushing people away, retreating inward, not letting anybody new in. Staying solely focused on his goals of first getting here to Arendelle and then graduating. That was until...

Kristoff tightened his arm around Anna, pulling her closer. “Yes, but I’m not so lonely anymore.”

Anna smiled up at him before leaning her head against his shoulder.


	25. Chapter 25

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The last goodbyes before mid-semester break.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Content warning: struggles with sexual identity, coming out]

The next morning, as Kristoff was brushing his teeth, Anna appeared in the doorway of his bathroom. He gave her a wink before rinsing and spitting. 

“Toothpaste please.” Anna held out her hand, motioning to where it was sitting on the far end of the bathroom counter. Every Saturday morning she’d put a bit on the tip of her finger as a makeshift way of brushing her teeth. 

Kristoff picked it up but then paused before handing it to her. “You know, if you ever wanted, I buy toothbrushes in big packs.”

“Huh?” She looked at him confused. 

Kristoff opened up the cabinet in his bathroom and pulled out a thing of toothbrushes. “See? Big pack. It’s cheaper in the long run. But it also means I have a bunch extra so you can take one if you wanted.”

“Take... one of your toothbrushes… to use?” she asked slowly.

“Yes.” Was it that strange of an offer? 

Anna fixed him with an unsure stare. “You want me to start keeping a toothbrush here?”

 _Ah._

“It sounds relationship-y when you say it like that.”

She nodded. “Mmhm.” 

“Well,” Kristoff crossed his arms and leaned a hip against the bathroom counter. “You really wouldn’t be _keeping_ a toothbrush here. Because it would still be one of my toothbrushes. So, you’d be, just, _borrowing_ a toothbrush while you’re here. Totally different.” 

Anna chewed on her lip as she looked from him to the pack of toothbrushes and then back to him. 

“Look, I’m not trying to push anything or change anything or make some bold romantic gesture.” He held out the pack to her. “Literally just offering a toothbrush so you don’t have to use your finger.”

“Welllll...” A smile slowly spread across Anna’s face as she reached out and took the pack of toothbrushes out of his hand. “There _is_ a pink one in here. I _guess_ I could do you a favor and take that one off your hands. Wouldn’t want your masculinity to suffer now would we?” 

Kristoff felt a pit in his stomach. If she thought something as silly as a pink toothbrush could lessen his masculinity...

“Great,” he said with a smile as he stomped down all those thoughts. 

{ ~ }

Later that morning, once Anna was back in her clothes from the night before, the two of them lingered near Kristoff’s front door. Both knew that this goodbye was going to be for a bit longer than normal.

“Well,” Kristoff stuck his hands in his pockets, “I probably won’t get to see you again before you head downstate.”

“Yeah, probably not.” They watched each other for a bit more before an idea came to her. “Since I’m not going to see you for awhile, would you be able to do me a favor?”

“What kind of favor?”

Anna twisted her hands together, hoping this wasn’t too silly of a request. “Can you pick me up?”

Kristoff snorted but then nodded. “C’mere.” 

Anna stepped closer to him and he put his hands on either side of her and lifted her up with ease. 

“Weee!” Anna exclaimed as she wrapped her legs around his waist, hooking them together behind his back. 

Kristoff smiled wide and bright. “You really like this, huh?”

“I do.” She gave his biceps a squeeze. 

He kissed her then, light and sweet with his lips still staying curled up in a smile. 

“Ok, favor completed,” Anna said, giving him a pat on the shoulder. She loosened the grip of her legs and Kristoff gently placed her back down on the ground.

“Bye, Anna. Have a fun break.”

“You too.”

He gave her one last kiss on the forehead before she headed out. 

~

That night Anna was out at a party with all her friends from her dorm. Madison had spent most of the night looking at her phone and saying things about how that Joe guy she was seeing was going to show up any minute now to hang out with them. Anna and Ryder exchanged quick, knowing glances. Madison had said the same thing last Saturday night too, but this Joe of hers had never showed. 

“Oh,” Madison clutched her phone with both hands. “Joe says he’s here. I’m going to go find him.” She turned and quickly headed off through the crowd towards the front of the house. 

“Have you met this guy?” Anna asked Ryder quietly. 

“Yeah,” he shrugged. “Bit of a douchebag.” 

Anna wanted to ask Ryder more on that but she then saw Madison walking back over to them with her arm hooked in the arm of… 

_Shit._

_Shit, shit, shit._

Joe was such a common name. There were a million Joe’s. So, when Madison would talk about _Joe_ how was Anna supposed to know she was talking about _this_ Joe. 

Because _this_ Joe was the Joe that Anna had met at a party last semester. She had thought he was really good looking and had really nice eyes. They had danced and flirted and then went back to his place. The sex had been dull and over quick. Joe either didn’t notice, or didn’t care, that Anna hadn’t come. She had hightailed it out of there pretty quick after that and never saw him again. In fact she had almost forgotten all about him until right now. 

(Though, the one thing she _did_ remember about this Joe was that he was a junior, which made Madison’s passive aggressive comment about Kristoff and Hans being _older guys_ even that much more annoying.) 

But she didn’t have much time to think about that because Madison and Joe had reached the group and Joe was greeting the people he already knew and introducing himself to the people he didn’t. Anna felt a jolt of panic as his eyes landed on hers.

“Hi,” he held a hand out, “I’m Joe.”

It was as if he were looking right through her. There was no recognition in his eyes at all. Maybe he didn’t actually remember her?

“Anna,” she said, taking his hand and shaking it. 

“Nice to meet you, Anna,” Joe said with a small nod before turning his attention back to Madison. 

Anna felt some of the tension ease out of her body, but only just a bit. 

Madison was one of her closest friends here at school. She was fun and funny and great to hang out with. But she could also be so self conscious and sensitive when it came to boys. Anna could only imagine Madison’s reaction if she found out Anna had once slept with this guy she was clearly so enamored with. But, if Joe didn’t remember her, it was probably best to just pretend to not remember him either. To just pretend that all _that_ never happened. 

But, _fuck_ , it still felt incredibly awkward. Anna wanted to get the heck out of there. It was late enough in the night that she could slip away without drawing too much attention. 

She took her phone out and discreetly texted Hans. 

_my place?_

It didn’t take him long to respond. 

_meet you there_

“You alright?” Ryder asked. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Anna waved her hand dismissively. “It’s just getting late. I think I’m going to head back.”

“Want me to walk with you?”

“No, I’m fine. You stay and have fun.” 

“Ok.” Ryder tilted his head and pointed at her. “Waffles tomorrow morning?”

She smiled back at him. “Always.” 

~

Anna laid on her bed staring up at the ceiling of her dorm room. 

“Something on your mind?” Hans asked. He was laying on his side facing her, his head propped up on one hand while the other traced lazy patterns across Anna’s stomach through the thin bed sheet that was covering their naked bodies. 

“Hmm?” she turned her head towards his. 

“You seemed deep in thought.”

She was. The whole situation with Madison and Joe was still sitting heavy in her head. Anna considered asking Hans for his advice. Was it better to go tell Madison about what happened last semester between her and Joe? Or would that just stir up a bunch of shit over something that, in the end, had meant nothing? 

But Anna was already pretty sure exactly what Has would say. ‘Don’t worry about it’ and ‘sex is just sex’ and ‘it’s _college_ ’ and other things like that. Besides, how interested would he be really in some silly drama between her and one of her girl friends. 

“Just thinking about break,” she lied. 

“Any big plans?”

“Most colleges are off at the same time, so all my high school friends will be back home, too. I’ll probably spend a bunch of time with them. That and, you know, family stuff.” 

Hans lowered his eyes to where his hand was resting on her. “Yeah, me too.” 

Anna thought about how Hans didn’t actually live that far away from her. The two of them could probably meet up during break if they wanted to. Hans could take the train into the city, it wouldn’t be that long of a ride from where he lived on Long Island. They could spend the whole day together. Do some window shopping (or actual shopping) down 5th Avenue. Find a fun little spot down in the Village to get lunch. Go for a walk along the Highline. Maybe take the ferry back and forth to Staten Island just to kill some time and enjoy the views. 

But then she realized just how much of a _date_ that all sounded like. Hans didn’t seem like the type to want to go on a date with anyone. Let alone a date that would require him to give up a whole day he could otherwise spend with his high school friends that he hadn’t seen in months. So, Anna decided not to mention the idea. 

Hans lifted his gaze back up to her face. He was the one that seemed deep in thought now, pensive green eyes studying her. 

“What’s on _your_ mind?” she asked. 

“Just thinking about break,” he said, repeating her words from earlier back to her. 

Anna narrowed her eyes and pressed her mouth into a straight line, her way of telling him that she knew he was bullshiting her. Hans imitated the facial expression back at her as he jutted out his chin. It drew a small laugh from her and he smiled along. 

Hans brought a hand up to her face, brushing his fingers across her cheek and tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “Anna, you’re-,” he began but then stopped. 

“I’m what?” she asked sweetly. “Tell me, what am I?”

Hans dropped his hand away from her face and let it slide under the bed sheet. “You are,” his palm caressed the outer curve of her breast, “incredibly,” his hand moved further down her body, “undeniably,” it finally came to a stop just above her center, “sexy.” 

Sometimes Anna couldn’t tell if Hans was being sincere or if he was just trying to be charming. But she enjoyed these little games and was happy to play along. 

“And you are,” she placed her hand flat against his chest, “pretty ok.” 

“Ouch,” he said with a small pout before leaning in to kiss her. 

Anna let her hand slide up his chest and around the back of his neck as she deepened the kiss. Hans shifted closer so that his body was pressed up alongside hers and Anna felt something hard against her hip. 

She broke the kiss and arched an eyebrow at him. ”Someone is ready for a round two.”

“If you want,” he said as he nuzzled her and kissed at her jaw and neck. “We won’t be able to do this next Saturday. Might be nice to have a little something extra to remember each other by.”

Anna scoffed, trying not to let it show just how much his touching and kissing were affecting her. “Bold of you to assume we’d automatically be doing this next Saturday even if we were still here at school.” 

“Oh, come on Anna Bell,” he purred against her skin. “You wouldn’t leave me all alone on a Saturday night, would you?” 

“I highly doubt you would ever be alone.” Anna closed her eyes as she felt a fire begin to roll through her. 

“No, I’m a good boy.” Hans kissed at the hollow of her neck and his teeth grazed against her collarbone. “If it weren’t for you I’d be in my room studying right now.”

A breathy laugh escaped her. “Bull fucking shit.”

The hand near her center began to move lower again. “I promise I’m a good boy.” His voice was like honey as his fingers dipped between her legs. “Let me show you just how good I am.” 

Anna didn’t want to play games anymore, claiming his mouth with hers and pulling his body closer. 

{ ~ }

Hans opened the window at the end of the hallway and turned back to look at Anna. “You going to miss me?” 

“No,” she said flatly, but then smiled at him. 

He smiled back at her. They both checked that the hallway was empty before sharing one last kiss. 

After looking out the window to ensure no campus security was around, Hans swung his legs out and reached for the pipe that ran up the side of the building. He grunted as he began to climb down. Why was climbing down always harder than climbing up? He landed on the grass with a small hop and walked off. 

Hans looked back over his shoulder to see Anna’s silhouette still in the second floor window. As much as he hated to admit it, he was really going to miss coming here next weekend. He gave her one last wave before turning around the corner of the building and heading off in the direction of Isle Hall. 

~

The next afternoon Hans found himself in the same place he had been the last two Sunday afternoons - Kristoff’s bed. Hans sat up, pulled his shirt up over his head, and then leaned back down to return to long slow kisses, his now bare chest pressing warm against Kristoff’s own. He rocked his hips against Kristoff's a couple of times, causing pleasant sounds to rumble out from deep within him. 

Kristoff’s eyes darkened with desire and he quickly rolled Hans onto his back. It always felt like a small victory, when Hans could rile Kristoff up enough for him to do something like that. 

Large hands moved down Hans’s body and began to work at his button and zipper. Kristoff shifted his hips to the side so he could slip his fingers under Hans’s jeans.

Hans moaned into Kristoff’s mouth and rocked his hips up into his hand. He was closer to the nightstand so he went to reach over to grab the bottle of lube. 

“Actually, um,” Kristoff said and Hans stopped and looked back at him. “I don’t think we need that.”

“What do you mean?”

“I was thinking of trying something different.” 

Before Hans could ask what he was thinking of trying, Kristoff began to place kisses across his chest. The kisses moved lower down his torso. And lower. Kristoff’s eye flickered up at him as his kisses reached Hans’s navel. 

_Oh._

Anticipation swirled inside of him. Kristoff had only ever given him handjobs up until then. Which, hey, Hans wasn’t going to complain about. Kristoff’s hand felt amazing. But this...

Hans lifted his hips as Kristoff pulled down his jeans and underwear and then he put a pillow under his head so he could get a good view. 

Kristoff settled himself down between Hans’s legs. He made one more quick glance up at Hans before wrapping a hand around the base and put his mouth over the head. Working slowly, tentative but eager, Kristoff began to take more and more of his cock into his mouth. 

“Ohh,” Hans moaned, but then a sharp sensation caused him to nearly squeak. “Ah! Teeth, _teeth_.” 

Kristoff pulled his mouth off and looked up, eyes wide with concern. “Shit. I’m sorry.” 

“It’s ok,” Hans said quickly, hoping Kristoff would go right back to what he had been doing. The teeth hadn’t really hurt that much, and everything up until then had felt amazing. 

Kristoff winced. “I’m new at this.”

“I know, it’s ok.” 

“Did-, did you want me to stop?”

“ _No_ , god, fuck no.” Hans knew he was failing at keeping his voice from sounding too desperate. “Please don’t stop.”

Kristoff nodded and then lowered his head, his mouth enveloping him again.

“Oh, yes,” Hans sighed. 

He laced his fingers through the soft strands of Kristoff’s shaggy hair. Not to control his movements, but to just feel him. Hans watched the muscles in Kristoff’s shoulders and neck flex with every bob of his head - one hand moving in rhythm with his warm mouth and the other firmly gripping Hans’s hip. 

“So good,” Hans hummed. “Oh, Kris, that’s so good.” 

That seemed to boost Kristoff’s confidence and he increased the pace of his mouth and hand. 

It didn’t take long for Hans to reach his climax. He gave Kristoff a fair warning but to Hans’s surprise - and if he was being honest, his delight - Kristoff didn’t pull away. Hans tightened his fingers in the other man’s hair as he emptied into his mouth. 

Once it was done, Kristoff moved back up his body and brought a hand to Hans’s cheek. “Was that alright?” 

Hans let out a short, ragged breath. “Yes, that was amazing.” 

Pride spread across his face and his swollen lips twitched up into a smile. 

Hans pressed himself up off the mattress to kiss Kristoff hard on the mouth, tasting himself. “Now it’s your turn.”

Kristoff slung an arm around him and rolled onto his back, pulling Hans with him. 

{ ~ }

Later, after a trip to DQ to pick up some food, the two of them sat on Kristoff’s couch and ate. 

Kristoff fiddled with the burger in his hands. “Do you remember how you said if I ever had a question, that I could ask you?” 

“Yeah,” Hans said, “what’s up?”

“If I ever get too personal you don't have to answer,” Kristoff said firmly. 

“I’m sure it’s fine.” Hans gave him a reassuring nod. 

“I was wondering, were there ever times that you doubted it? Where you thought you had it all wrong? Like, that you were actually straight and you were just imagining things?” It’s not that Kristoff had those thoughts all that much anymore. But they had been there for so many years and he wondered how normal they were. 

Hans leaned back against the couch. “Yes and no. There were for sure times that I doubted it. But it was more of a ‘Am I actually gay?’ thing instead of a ‘Am I actually straight?’ thing.”

“So you pretty much always knew you liked guys?” he asked, taking another bite of his burger. 

“Yeah, it was pretty early on that I had one of those lightbulb moments where it was just like, huh, maybe the reason I’m obsessed with this celebrity isn’t because of how _cool_ I think he is.” Hans chuckled. “Like, _maybe_ the reason for all the posters on my walls and the constantly thinking about him is for an entirely different reason.” 

Kristoff chewed and swallowed. “Huh.” 

Hans grinned at him. “You’re having that lightbulb moment right now aren’t you?” 

“Yeah. I watched that 2009 Star Trek movie a lot in high school. Like, _a lot_.” Like at least once a week. Kristoff had practically owned the copy from the local library where he grew up. 

Hans nodded knowingly. “Chris Pine. That’s definitely a top Chris. I prefer Hemsworth, of course. But, I get it.”

Kristoff couldn’t help but notice with some satisfaction that Hemsworth was the tallest and broadest of all the Chrises. “Is that who you were obsessed with?”

“No, it was Derek Jeter.”

Kristoff rolled his eyes. “Ugh, I forgot you’re a Yankees fan.” He went to go take another bite of his burger but then something clicked in his brain. “Wait a minute. Derek Jeter was a shortstop.” 

“Your deep knowledge of sports trivia is impressive,” Hans responded sarcastically. 

Kristoff put his burger down on the coffee table and turned to face Hans more. “Doesn’t that Eric guy play shortstop for the Arendelle U baseball team?”

Hans froze, his mouth open and a couple of french fries in his hand just a few inches away. Kristoff smirked as he saw a light blush creeping onto his cheeks. Hans always liked to act so unfazed by everything, so Kristoff was going to enjoy getting him all flustered like this for once. 

“Living out some long held fantasies, are we?” he teased. 

“ _No_ ,” Hans said sharply. 

Kristoff began to snicker. 

“It’s not-, that not-,” Hans tossed the fries that were in his hand back down into his take out container. “I’m not having this conversation. I don’t like to talk about the people I sleep with.”

“Relax, I’m messing with you.” He gave Hans a gentle poke on the shoulder. “And I know you don’t talk about that kind of stuff. I mean, that’s one of the reasons I wanted to, you know,” he motioned back and forth between them. 

“One of, huh?” Hans smirked, “That means there are other reasons too.”

Kristoff looked away. How did he let Hans flip the conversation back on him? 

“Tell me,” Hans cooed. “What made me so irresistible?” 

“No, I’m not feeding your ego.” 

Hans turned himself sideways on the couch and moved closer, his knees brushing up against the side of Kristoff’s thigh. “Come on, tell me. Tell me, tell me, tell me.”

“ _Fine._ I guess you are kind of, sort of, maybe good looking.” 

Hans flashed him a wide smile. 

“And you,” Kristoff shrugged, “you already knew that I was, _you know_ , without me ever having to actually tell you. Without me ever having to say it out loud. So, I guess, that just made it all easier for me.”

Hans looked at him confused. “What do you mean? You told me you were bi. When you were high you told me.”

“I didn’t really though. I said _enough_ that night, but I didn’t actually say _it_.”

Hans scrunched his face up in thought and looked off into the middle distance. “That’s right, you didn’t.” He looked back at Kristoff, his eyes scrutinizing him. “But you _have_ said it out loud at some point, right?”

“Well,” Kristoff thought about that for a moment. “No. I told you that nobody else knows.” 

Hans’s eyebrows went up. “Are you serious? You’ve never said the words ‘I’m bisexual’ out loud before? Not even to yourself?” 

Say it? He still struggled to even _think_ the word sometimes. “No, I’ve never said it.”

“Ok, you need to say it.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Yes, you need to say it!”

Kristoff sagged his shoulders. “Who am I going to say it to?” He was _not_ ready to come out to anybody else yet. If he couldn’t find the courage to tell _Anna_ then there wasn’t anybody else he was going to have the courage to tell. 

“Um. Me?” Hans said as if it were the most obvious thing. 

“You already know.”

“So? Say it. Right now.”

Kristoff rubbed his forehead, “I-, I don’t know.”

Hans smiled, “Come on, Kristoff. Say it. Say it, say it, say it.”

Kristoff covered his face with his hands, not believing that he had walked right into this. He felt Hans swing up on his lap, straddling him, and take hold of Kristoff’s forearms. 

“Tell me. Say it. Right now. You’ll feel so much better, trust me.” 

“Why?” Kristoff dropped his hands away from his face, letting them settle on Hans’s legs. “Why do you care? Why does it matter?”

His expression changed from teasing to serious as he looked down at him. “Kris, listen to me. You don’t have to come out to another person for the rest of your life if you don’t want to. But you _need_ to be out to yourself. Because if you’re not? Then all that pain and fear and doubt you told me about the night of the storm? Then you have no chance of ever getting past that.”

Hans was right. Kristoff knew he was right. He had come so far in his acceptance of this part of himself, so to hold back on _saying_ it any longer was silly. Because this wasn’t just some experimenting or the scratching of some itch. This wasn’t something that only existed for a few hours while the two of them were alone in his apartment and then disappeared as soon as Hans stepped out the door. This was who he was. 

“They’re not magical words or anything like that,” Hans said with kindness in his eyes, “but they’re an important step.” 

Kristoff let out a long breath as he moved his hands up and down the outside of Hans’s thighs. All the nerves in his body tingled. He could do this. He _would_ do this. Kristoff steeled himself and opened his mouth to say the words that he had run from for so long. 

“I’m bi.” 

Hans gasped, his eyes going wide and his hands clutching to his chest. “You _are_?”

“ _Hans_ ,” Kristoff grabbed his hips and gave him a little shake. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

Hans laughed as he dropped his hands. 

“You’re such an asshole,” Kristoff grumbled, but he couldn’t help but smile too. 

“Sorry, sorry. I know. But do you feel better now?”

“A bit,” he admitted. 

“Good. Say it again.”

Kristoff took a breath. “I’m bi,” he said again, the words coming easier this time. He felt a lightness in his chest. 

“Say ‘I am bisexual!’ Nice and loud.”

Kristoff held his arms out wide and loudly declared: “I am bisexual!”

“Say ‘I am a cocksucker!’”

“I-, no,” Kristoff covered his face with his hands and groaned. 

“What? Why not?” Hans teased. “You’re officially a cocksucker now.”

Kristoff leaned forward, wrapping his arms around Hans and burying his face in the front of Hans’s shirt to hide his blushing. “Why do you always have to be so crude?”

“Why do you always have to be so embarrassed by sex the second you step out of the bedroom?” Hans asked with a small giggle. 

The only response Kristoff could come up with was another groan. 

Hans ran his fingers through Kristoff’s hair, lightly scratching at his scalp. The sensation settled him and Kristoff nuzzled further against Hans’s shirt, taking in his scent. 

“Hey,” Hans said gently and Kristoff looked up at him. He cupped Kristoff’s face in his hands. “I’m proud of you,” Hans said, his voice quiet and sincere. 

“Thank you.” Kristoff ran a hand up and down his back. “Thank you for everything.” 

{ ~ }

Before he left Kristoff’s apartment, Hans made a quick stop in the bathroom. He hummed to himself as he washed his hands but then paused when something caught his eye. There in the toothbrush holder were _two_ toothbrushes - one blue and one pink. 

That was new, right? Yes, that was new. Hans would have definitely noticed that before. Anna was now keeping a toothbrush here. That was the only explanation. 

Hans turned off the faucet and began to dry his hands. 

He had confirmed it separately with both of them, that the thing between them wasn’t serious. That Anna and Kristoff had both agreed that they were allowed to see other people. It was what made this whole thing ok, the reason why none of them were actually doing anything wrong. 

It probably meant nothing, he told himself. Just a toothbrush, nothing more. Hans had to trust that they would tell him if the nature of their relationship ever changed. He had to trust that they wouldn’t pull him into something he didn’t want to be a part of. 

Because, seriously, fuck cheaters. 

{ ~ } 

As they stood by his front door saying goodbye  
Hans tilted his chin up and pressed a kiss to Kristoff’s mouth. 

“You know, I’m still not used to the whole,” Hans threw his head back dramatically, “thing.”

Kristoff smirked as he brought his hands up to Hans’s hips. “Am I the tallest person you’ve ever kissed?”

“Oh yeah. By a lot.”

“That’s funny. Because I think you might be the tallest person I’ve ever kissed too.”

“Oh ha ha.”

“No, seriously. Tell me how tall you are exactly and I can tell you for sure.”

“I’m almost 6 foot,” Hans said with an air of confidence. 

Kristoff scoffed. “No guy who is _actually_ 6 feet tall says that he is _almost_ 6 foot.” 

Hans narrowed his eyes. “Fine. 5 foot 11.”

“Ok, so you’re tied for tallest,” Kristoff said, remembering that that was how tall Paige was. 

“And what about you? 6 foot 4?”

“6 foot 5.”

That seemed to pain Hans almost. “ _Fuuuck_. I wish.”

Kristoff shook his head. “Honestly, it’s not always so great.” 

Hans gave him a disbelieving glare.

“I’m serious. There are times that I feel like this big creature hovering over people.” Kristoff could think of quite a number of social situations where he wished he could have shrunk down. 

“Well, I’d still switch heights with you anyday.”

“Believe me, I’d give you a couple of inches if I could.” Kristoff regretted the words as soon as they left his mouth and he felt his face get warm. 

Hans’s eyes went wide and a mischievous smile spread across his face. He opened his mouth to say something, but Kristoff cut him off. 

“Nope, nope. I heard it as soon as I said it so you don’t have to say whatever innuendo you were about to say.”

“Oh _come on_ ,” Hans whined. 

Kristoff sighed. “Fine.”

Hans leaned in close to where their lips were almost touching, his voice low and smooth. “You can give me a lot more than just a couple of inches whenever you want.” He searched Kristoff’s eyes. “No pressure, of course.”

Kristoff swallowed thickly, his grip on Hans’s hips tightening. He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t been thinking about that more. Maybe soon, but, not today. 

Hans gave him a small peck on the lips. “I should be heading out.” 

“Have a good break,” he said as Hans stepped away.

“You too.” Hans opened the door and then looked back at him. “And, please, don’t spend your whole break studying. Try to have at least a little bit of fun.” 

“I’ll try,” he said. But all the fun in Kristoff’s life was heading downstate for break. 

Hans gave him one last wink before closing the door behind him. Kristoff turned back around to face his now empty apartment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now that we have reached mid-semester break we are, at least timeline-wise, at the midpoint of our story. (I can’t guarantee that it’ll be the midpoint chapter count or word count wise though, haha.) It feels crazy that the story has come this far already. I want to thank everyone for reading and commenting and leaving kudos. It means so much! 
> 
> These next three chapters are going to be a bit different from what’s come so far. They’ll take on a slightly different format as we spend some time with each of our three main characters while they are away from each other. I hope you enjoy!


	26. Anna

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Content warning: emotional neglect, divorce]

Anna pushed the food around on her plate as her family sat at the dining room table for dinner.

“It was honestly embarrassing for you to not be there last night,” her father said as he looked across the table at her mother. “What do you think people thought, me showing up to a charity function like that alone?”

“They can think that you have a wife that actually has a career of her own, maybe?” 

“I have a stomach ache,” Elsa said quietly as she looked down at her plate. “Can I be excused?”

Their parents must not have heard her, because they continued on. 

“Besides, I had a dinner with a client that I couldn’t cancel,” her mother said with a shrug. 

Her father pinched the bridge of his nose. “It’s been on the calendar for months.” 

“I can do a handstand,” Anna said loudly. 

Her parents stopped talking and looked over at her, confused. 

She swallowed and continued on. “In gym the teacher was teaching us how to do handstands and everyone tried to do one and I was the only one in the _whole_ fourth grade who could do it.”

It wasn’t actually the whole fourth grade, just the other kids in her own class. But it sounded more impressive to say the whole fourth grade. 

“That’s what we pay that school all that money for?” her father grumbled. “Teaching handstands?”

“Sush,” her mother said, shooting him a glare. “Go on, Anna. Show us your handstand.”

Anna jumped down out of her chair and ran over to the wall. Planting both hands on the floor, she pushed off with her feet and straightened her body up into a handstand. 

“Ta-da!” she said, cheerfully. Looking at her family upside down, she could see small smiles on both of her parents’ faces. Anna lowered her legs and righted herself. “I also learned a new song in music class today,” she declared, proudly. 

“Well go on,” her father said. “Let’s hear it.” 

As she began to sing, Anna saw Elsa start to get her dinner again. 

Later that night, as Anna lay in her bed, she could hear her parents’ voices downstairs. She couldn’t hear what they were saying, but could hear the tense tone in their voices. Anna slipped out from under her covers to creep out of her room, down the hall, and into Elsa’s room. 

Elsa was sitting up in bed with the sheet pulled over her head, a soft glow coming from underneath. The door closing behind Anna must have made enough of a sound for her to hear as Elsa then pulled the sheet away to see what it was. Elsa had a flashlight in one hand and a book in the other. “Anna?” 

Anna shuffled her feet. “Can I sleep in here tonight?”

“Of course.” Elsa shifted over and patted the now empty space next to her.

Anna ran over and climbed up into the bed. She tucked in close to her older sister and they pulled the sheet back up over both of their heads. Elsa aimed her flashlight back at the book and began to read out loud. Anna slowly drifted off to sleep as she listened to the tale of pirates and sword fights and a princess and her true love. 

~  
~~  
~

Anna sat at the dining room table doing some school work. Well, she _had_ been doing some school work until she got distracted and began drawing on a blank page of her notebook. 

“Anna,” her father’s voice said from behind her, causing her to jump. He was walking through the dining room looking through a stack of mail. “Stop fooling around and get back to work.” 

“Yes dad.” Anna shuffled her papers to get back to her actual school work. 

He paused to give her a stern look. “Just because you’ve received your college acceptance letters doesn’t mean it’s time to slack off. There will be no senioritis in this house young lady.”

“Yes dad,” she repeated. 

Anna’s mother entered the kitchen then. “Agnarr, did you call the roofer yet?” she asked. 

“No, not yet.” He looked back down at the mail in his hand and walked over into the kitchen. 

“You said you were going to do it this week.”

“I will,” he said flatly. 

Anna’s mother sighed. “We need to call soon, otherwise it won’t be done before summer. Which is when I would actually like to enjoy the beach house instead of dealing with workers being there.”

“I said I will do it, so I will do it.” Her father kept his eyes down on the mail as he shuffled through it. “Though, nothing is stopping _you_ from calling them.” 

“I’ve decided on my major,” Anna blurted out. 

Both of her parents turned to look at her, surprised. 

“You have?” her mother asked, a touch of hopefulness in her tone.

“Yes, um…” Anna hadn’t actually decided on anything yet so she needed to think fast. “I’m going to major in business administration.”

“Just like your sister,” her father said with a nod. “Very smart. A lot of career opportunities there, especially if you get your MBA afterwards.” 

“Yes,” her mother agreed. “A smart choice.” 

Anna relaxed against the back of her chair. Her father headed off in the direction of his study and her mother began to walk upstairs, both seemingly forgetting about the roof for the beach house. 

~  
~~  
~

Anna checked her shopping list again as she walked down the dairy aisle. The recipe she was making for dinner tomorrow night was a bit complicated, but a special occasion called for a special dinner. She opened one of the refrigerated doors to retrieve some cheese. 

“Moo, moo,” the toddler sitting in her shopping cart said. He was pointing at some milk cartons that had a cartoon cow on them. 

“That’s right, Olaf. That’s a cow. Moo, moo.” Anna tickled at his chin and he giggled in the way that always melted her heart. “You’re so smart. Smartest little boy in the whole wide world.”

Anna placed the cheese in the shopping cart and began to push it forward again. 

“Eh-mo! Eh-mo! Eh-mo!” Olaf cried with excitement. 

Anna looked where he was pointing. On the end cap of the aisle was a display of baby and toddler snack foods with Sesame Street characters on the boxes. There was also a row of small plush Elmos and they were the thing that had caught Olaf’s attention. 

“What would your moms say if I brought you home with yet another toy?” she asked with a shake of her head. 

Olaf looked at her with big, sad eyes. “Eh-mo,” he said again slowly, sounding near tears at the prospect of not getting the toy he wanted. 

Anna’s shoulders sagged. It was always so hard to say no to him. “Ok,” she said, picking one of the Elmos up and handing it to Olaf. 

“Eh-mo!” he squealed. Olaf bounced up and down in his seat as he hugged the Elmo tight. 

A warmth spread through her chest as Anna squeezed the handle of the shopping cart and turned it into the next aisle.

  


* * *

  


“Hello!” Anna called out as her and Elsa walked through the front door and into the vestibule of the townhouse. They both stood still and silent for a moment listening for a response, but none came. 

“Maybe they’re upstairs?” Elsa suggested, dropping her bags to the floor. Their parents’ master bedroom was on the top floor of the townhouse, five stories up. Elsa walked over to where the intercom panel was on the wall and pressed the button. “Mom? Dad?” Still no response. 

Anna dropped her bags as well and walked forward, through the dining room and into the kitchen. There on the counter was a stack of money and a note

_‘Working late, you girls go get dinner on us.’_

~

The next morning Anna and Elsa found their mother in the kitchen. She was dressed in a suit for work and was filling her thermos with coffee. “Good morning, girls.” 

“Where’s dad?” Anan asked as she got two bowls down out of the cabinet so her and Elsa could have some cereal for breakfast. 

“I’m sure he’s around somewhere,” she said dismissively. “Anna, are going to see Sebastian at all while you’re home this week?” 

Anna rolled her eyes as she took the box of cereal that Elsa was passing to her. “Probably not, no.” Seb was a douchebag that Anna had dated for half a second back in high school. But his parents were wealthy and in the same social circle as her parents, so Anna still had to hear about him all the time. 

Their mother turned her attention to her sister then. “Elsa, do you know who I saw the other day? Rosemary Barclay. Her daughter Lynn got into med school at Columbia. Isn’t that interesting?”

“Hmm,” was all Elsa gave as a response, not looking up from her cereal. Ever since Elsa came out, their parents had switched from trying to set her up with the sons of their friends to trying to set her up the lesbian daughters of their friends. The fact that Elsa had been dating Maren for nearly four years now didn’t seem to deter them one bit. 

“Well, I’m off.” Her mom picked up her coffee thermos and purse and headed towards the front door of the townhouse. 

“Will we see you guys for dinner?” Anna called after.

“Not tonight, dear. But I left you girls some money there on the counter.” And then she was out the door. 

~

Anna spent most of the first couple of days of break catching up with friends from high school and enjoying the city. She’d see their parents in passing here and there, but every evening they both ended up either needing to work late or to attend some social function. So, Anna and Elsa were left to their own devices for dinner. There was always a stack of cash left on the kitchen counter though, so ate well at great restaurants that the city had to offer. 

~

One sunny afternoon, while sitting out on the terrace of the townhouse, Anna found herself scrolling through the pictures on her phone. As her time home had continued on, she found herself missing school more and more. Well, not the _school_ part of school of course. But missing her friends. Ryder and his jokes and their breakfasts together in the dining hall. Madison and Chloe and the other girls on her floor and all the fun they would get into on their nights out. 

But most of all she was missing Kristoff and Hans. She hadn’t expected to miss them as much as she did. The way they would smile at her, the way she felt when the three of them were hanging out together, the way she felt whenever she was alone with either of them. 

Anna wanted to see their faces and the pictures on her phone that she had seen dozens of times before weren’t cutting it. Part of her wanted to video call them, but that felt too invasive. Maybe she could get them to send her selfies, so she could at least see their smiles. But she couldn’t just _ask_ them to send her selfies. That would come across as crazy desperate and probably weird. But, maybe if she sent them one then they’d decide to send ones back as well. Maybe. Boys never seemed to care about selfies and taking pictures as much as girls did. 

She stood, walked over to the railing of the terrace, and turned around. Anna angled her phone so that the view of Central Park two blocks away could be seen over her shoulder, hoping that it would make the selfie seem more like a friendly hello instead of some kind of thirsty trick to get pictures back. She snapped a few, chose the best one, and sent it to them in the group text with a message. 

(Anna): _hello from NYC!_

The first message back, not surprisingly, was from Hans. Kristoff was always a slow texter. 

(Hans): _sitron says hi_

Along with the message was a picture of a black and white cat curled up in a ball and sleeping on a bedspread. Anna gasped and began to type back her response. 

(Anna): _OMG!_  
(Anna): _you never told me you have a cat!_  
(Anna): _he’s soooo cute!!_

(Hans): _don’t let him fool you, he might be cute but he can be a bit of a bastard sometimes_

(Anna): _AHAHAHA_

After a delay a message from Kristoff came through. 

(Kristoff): _haha_

No picture included. 

Anna sighed. Boys. 

~

Another evening and another dinner time where their parents were both not around. Tonight Anna and Elsa chose an Italian place that had just opened up in midtown. It was the newest restaurant from some famous chef that Anna had never heard of but Elsa swore was amazing. Elsa ordered the orecchiette with pancetta and broccoli rabe. Anna got the spaghetti and meatballs. 

“I can’t believe you got that,” Elsa said with a teasing smile after the waiter had set their plates down. 

“What?” Anna smiled back as she laid her napkin across her lap. “It’s a classic. And if it’s such a bad thing to order, then why is it even on the menu?”

“They put it on the menu for small children and tourists who don’t know any better,” Elsa responded matter-of-factly before taking a bite of her food. 

“Oh, don’t be such a snob.” Anna picked up her fork. “How’s your break been going, good?”

“Yes, productive,” she nodded before taking another bite of her food. Elsa had spent a bit of time catching up with friends while home, but not as much time as Anna had spent doing that. Being a senior in her last semester, Elsa had a heavy workload and had spent a good chunk of her break holed up in her room working and studying. (She also spent a good chunk of her break on the phone with Maren.)

“It’s nice to be home, but I am missing school a bit,” Anna said as she twirled her fork around on her plate, collecting up some spaghetti. “Is that weird, you think?” 

Elsa stared off as she chewed her food, an absent look on her face. 

“Elsa?” Anna reached over and touched her sister’s arm.

She snapped out of whatever trance she seemed to be in and looked over at Anna. “No,” she shook her head. “It’s not strange. I’m missing school too.” 

Anna watched her sister for a moment. “Can I have some of your wine?” she asked. Her glass was filled with soda as she hadn’t wanted to risk using her fake ID in a fancy place like this. 

A smile returned to Elsa’s face. “No.” 

~

That night Anna laid in bed flicking through the channels on the TV in her room. There was nothing worth watching, she eventually decided, and turned it off. 

Anna picked her sketchbook up off her nightstand and opened it, taking the large envelope out from inside the front cover. She turned the envelope over and allowed all of the photographs inside to spill out onto the bed next to her. 

Sifting through, she eventually found a photograph of Kristoff and Hans. It was one of them sitting on Kristoff’s couch together that Anna had stealthy taken. They both had a plate of pizza in their laps. Hans was saying something to Kristoff and Kristoff was smiling back at him. Anna tried to place the memory of which night this was. Was it from the night of the kappa party? Or was it from the night before they went to the outlet mall? The three of them had already made so many memories in only half a semester. 

She propped the photograph up against the lamp on her night stand and began to sketch it. 

~

On their last full day of break before having to head back to school, Anna came home from a day out with her friends expecting to find only Elsa and a fresh stack of cash. She was surprised instead to find both her mother and father in the kitchen preparing dinner. 

“What’s this?” Anna asked as she walked into the dining room. Elsa was setting the table and gave her a look that said this whole thing was also a surprise to her. 

“It’s the last night you girls are here, so we figured we should have at least one dinner all together,” her father said. “Help you sister set the table, the food is almost ready.”

There was a lightness in Anna’s chest as she helped Elsa put out the plates, forks, and knives. 

Their parents sat at the heads of the table and Anna and Elsa sat across from each other. As they sat and ate their parents asked about their classes and grades, normal parent stuff. This was so nice Anna thought as she stuck another forkful of food in her mouth. She had, of course, enjoyed the dinners out with just her and Elsa all week. But she wished it could be like this all the time, the four of them sitting down to dinner like this.

“Girls,” her father said, putting his knife and fork down as they got to the end of dinner. “There is something we need to tell you.”

“We’re getting a divorce,” her mother added, her voice crisp. 

Anna felt a sense of whiplash. “Wh-, what?” 

“We spent a lot of time discussing it and we’ve decided that this is the best decision. For everybody.” Her mother was talking as if this was all no big deal. As if this was all final and decided already. But, no, that couldn’t be. Anna’s stomach dropped. 

“You’re getting divorced, just like that? Don’t people do things like trial separations first? Before they officially get divorced?” she asked, desperately trying to grab hold of something that could make this not true.

Her mother nodded. “We’ve already been separated since January.”

“ _January?_ ”

“Yes,” her father said. “That was when I moved into a new apartment that I purchased.” 

Anna’s head was spinning. Her father moved out _months_ ago? 

“Now, we will be selling the townhouse. This place is way too big for just me.” Their mother gestured around with her hands. “I’ll wait until autumn to put it on the market though. So, the two of you will have the whole summer to pack.”

“And since you’re both adults, there’ll be no need for any custody agreements. You’re both nearly out of the house anyway, but until you _are_ on your own it’ll be up to you where you want to live.”

“Right, both your father’s new apartment and whatever place I move into will have enough room for both of you. So, we’ll be leaving that up to you girls.”

“But, we will _not_ be selling the beach house in Southampton,” their father said in a tone as if he thought that the information would be reassuring somehow. “We talked that over and, fiscally, it just doesn’t make sense to sell it. The two of us will continue to jointly own it and we’ll work out a schedule on using it. Which means you girls will be able to go out and stay there whenever you want.”

Anna looked back and forth between them. Never in her life had her parents been so in sync and in agreement with each other as they were right now, talking about how they would divvy up real estate post divorse. She looked across the table at Elsa who had yet to say a single thing. Elsa continued to eat her dinner as if nothing was happening, as if their whole world weren’t crashing down around them. 

Anna abruptly stood and headed for the stairs. No one said anything or moved to stop her. She ran up the stairs and into her room, slamming the door behind her. A sob escaped her body and she dove into her bed and buried her face into her pillow. How could this happen? 

After some time there was a knocking at her door. 

“Go away,” Anna shouted. 

“Anna, it’s me,” Elsa voice said from the other side of the door. 

She wiped the tears from her eyes. “Come in.”

Elsa opened the door, stepped in, closed the door behind her. Crossing the room, Elsa came and sat down on the edge of the bed. “How are you holding up?” 

“Not great.” Anna looked at her sister. There was worry and concern etched in her face, but it was clear that it was for Anna alone. Elsa seemed completely unaffected by the news that their parents had just dropped on them. “Why aren’t you upset about this?” she asked. 

Elsa blinked. “I’m upset.” 

“You don’t seem upset.” 

“I _am_ upset, Anna. I’m just not surprised. I’ve honestly been expecting it.”

Anna stood up from the bed. “How were you expecting it? Did one of them say something to you?”

“No, I-,”

“At Christmas?” Anna barreled on. “Because if dad bought his apartment in January that means they had already known, had already decided, by Christmas.” And they had acted as if everything was fine and normal. Anna felt sick. 

“No,” Elsa said with more force. “They didn’t say anything to me. I expected it because I’ve lived in this house my whole life.”

“So have I,” Anna said defensively. 

Elsa opened her mouth to say something but then closed it. 

Anna huffed and stalked off to the middle of the room. She knew her parents’ marriage wasn’t perfect, but it wasn’t horrible either. At least he hadn’t thought it was. “Why now? What happened? What changed?” 

“Sometimes people just reach a breaking point, Anna.”

“No. _Something_ changed.” Anna paced the floor of her room, contemplating the timeline. “If dad moved out in January, that means they came to the decision by December the latest. November maybe? So what was it? What changed right before-,” The realization hit her like a punch to the chest. What the thing was that had changed last fall. “It’s my fault,” she croaked. 

“What?” 

Anna felt tears beginning to sting her eyes and she turned to look at her sister. “It was me going away to college. It was me not being here, not being around to, to… that’s what changed right before they, they…” she trailed off, unable to finish her sentence. 

“Anna,” her sister stood and walked over to her. “It’s not your fault. This had nothing to do with you.”

“I could have stayed home, gone to a school here in the city.” Anna had been accepted to some colleges here, but she wanted to go away. Wanted the real college _experience_. 

Elsa shook her head. “That’s not what you wanted.”

“I didn’t want this either,” she nearly shouted. 

“It was never your job to fix what was wrong between them.” Elsa put her hands on Anna’s upper arms. “I know you always thought it was. I know you always put it on yourself to lighten things up. But that wasn’t your responsibility.” 

“At least I tried!” Anna pulled away from her sister’s hold, feeling a flash of anger. “What did you ever do? Nothing!” 

She didn’t let Elsa answer, instead grabbing her purse off her bed and storming out. Anna ran down the stairs as fast as she could, her feet thudding loud on each step, and was quickly out the front door of the townhouse. 

~

Anna fell in step with the crowds on the sidewalk as she neared the park. A whole big, busy world of people who had no idea of the pain that had just come crashing down in her life. It was strangely calming. 

There was no particular destination in mind as she entered Central Park. She walked the winding paths for a short time before sitting down on an empty bench. From there she watched all of the people walking by, out enjoying the park on a warm spring evening. There were groups of friends and families with little kids. There were couples, both young and old, out walking arm in arm. 

Anna wanted Kristoff and Hans to be there with her, to be sitting on either side of her on the park bench right at that moment. The want hit her with a pang in her chest. She thought about what that would be like, if the two of them were with her here in the city. Not to console her in her grief, but to enjoy the city with her in some alternate reality where what happened tonight had never actually happened. 

Hans would love the city. He didn’t live that far away and had probably been here plenty of times before. Maybe he even had some favorite places. Kristoff would hate the city at first. Too crowded, too loud, too expensive. Anna could see his grumpy scowl now. But her and Hans would drag him around to places that they would think he would like in order to convince him otherwise. 

Hans would insist on taking him to a _real_ pizza place and forcing Kristoff to admit that downstate pizza was better than upstate pizza. Kristoff would roll his eyes at first, but after eating he would concede that they were right. 

They’d take him to some of the famous museums around the city. Kristoff would like the history stuff at the MET and the science stuff at the Museum of Natural History. (They’d avoid MoMa though; Kristoff didn’t seem the type to like modern art.) And they’d take him here, to Central Park. Kristoff would really like this place. 

Anna looked around. Over to her right she saw some kids climbing on one of the large rock formations that were throughout the park - ancient bedrock jutting up from the earth. 

Kristoff and Hans would want to climb on it too if they were here. They’d race each other to the top, scrambling over slick stone and searching out footholds to see who could reach the highest perch first. Whoever won would gloat. Whoever came in second would jokingly accuse the other of cheating. They would both be winded and flushed by the time they climbed back down to her. With smiles they would ask her opinion on whether or not any cheating had occurred, as if her final say was all that mattered. She would tell them it looked like a tie from her vantage point. Then she would loop her arms in the crooks of both of theirs and the three of them would continue their walk through the park. 

Anna’s phone began to ring, pulling her from the daydream. She looked at the caller ID before answering, “Hi Ryder.”

“Hey Anna.” It felt good to hear his voice. “I heard about what happened,” he said with a somber tone.

Anna didn’t have to ask what he was talking about or how he heard. “Yeah,” was all she said. 

“I’m really sorry, Anna.”

She crossed her arms as best she could while still holding the phone to her ear. “Thank you,” she eked out. 

Ryder didn’t say anything after that, but it was ok. Anna leaned her face further against the phone, finding comfort in his silent presence even if she couldn’t see or hug him. 

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Anna said eventually. “I’ll text you when I’m back at school.”

“Ok. We should be back before you guys, so I’ll come find you once I hear from you.” 

They said their goodbyes and Anna put her phone back in her pocket. She took one more look around the park before standing and walking off in the direction of home. 

~

Anna stood outside of her sister’s bedroom door and took a deep breath. Raising her fist up, she knocked on the door. 

“Come in,” Elsa’s voice said from within.

She entered to find Elsa sitting on her bed. “I’m sorry for getting mad at you and running off like that,” Anna said quickly. 

“No, I’m sorry.” Elsa stood and walked over to her. “All those years I-,” her voice caught. She reached out and took Anna’s hands before continuing on. “I still believe that it wasn’t our jobs to fix the problems in their marriage. But I still shouldn’t have left you to do it all on your own, to shoulder all of that when you were so young. You’re my little sister, I should have been there for you.”

“You _were_ there for me, Elsa.” Tears began to spill from her eyes and she pulled her sister into a hug. “You were always there for me. They were never around but you were always there.” 

They stood in silent embrace for some time before Anna spoke again. 

“Would it be ok if I slept in here tonight?” she asked. 

Elsa squeezed her tighter. “Of course.” 

{ ~ }

The next morning Elsa stood near her bed, loading her folded clothes into one of her bags.

“What time are you leaving?” a voice asked. 

Elsa looked up to see her mother standing in the doorway. “Ten,” she said before returning her attention to the clothes. 

“Waiting until after morning rush hour. That’s smart,” her mother said plainly, as if it were perfectly normal or them to be exchanging idle chit chat right now. 

Elsa felt all her frustrations and resentments bubble up to the surface as she clutched a shirt in her hands. “I know I shouldn’t be surprised anymore by how cold you two can be. But the way you went about telling us that news last night? Well, you managed to find a way under an already very low bar.” 

Her mother scoffed. “What were we supposed to do, Elsa? We thought telling you both while you were home was best. What would that have been better? Telling you over the phone?”

“No,” Elsa said slowly, trying to keep her anger in control. “Doing it in person while we were home from break isn’t the issue. The issue is you had an entire week to tell us. A whole _week_. But you waited until the last minute so you didn’t have to deal with the fall out. Because, as always, it's easier to leave that to me.” 

“That is not why we-,” 

“I have a lot of packing left to do,” Elsa said, cutting her off. She turned away and back toward the pile of clothes on her bed. “Please close the door on your way out.”

Her mother didn’t say anything further and all Elsa heard were footsteps and the door closing.


	27. Hans

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Content warning: verbal abuse, coming out, biphobia/homophobia, misogyny]

Hans sprinted down the hall as fast as his legs could carry him. As he got to the top of the stairs he quickly pivoted and began running down them, his brothers still behind him. Rudi and Runo were bigger than him, but Hans was faster. 

“Get back here!” one of them yelled from behind him, but Hans didn’t stop. 

Hans took the last two steps in one leap. Looking back over his shoulder, he saw as Runo stumbled on the last step and then as Rudi ran into him, sending both of them right into a side table in the hall. A vase on the table rocked and then fell, hitting the floor with a loud crash. Hans skidded to a stop and turned to look at the broken pieces, dread beginning to flood in. 

“What was that?” he heard his mom’s voice scream from the next room. Her heels _click-clacked_ loud against the hardwood floor as she came into view. She looked at the three of them and then at the broken vase. “What happened? Were you running in the house? How many times do we have to tell you no running in the house?"

“Hans did it,” Rudi and Runo said in unison, pointing at him. 

“That’s not true!” Hans whined. “They-, they were chasing me.”

“Oh, poor you,” she said in a mocking tone. Throwing her hands up in the air, she turned and walked away. “I can’t! I can’t handle these hellions today. Victor! Discipline your sons!” 

It was too late that Hans realized that Rudi and Runo had disappeared as soon as their mom had turned her back. Before Hans could do the same, his dad was storming into the hall. 

He looked at the broken vase and then at Hans. “What happened?” he demanded. “Were you running?”

“Yes, but-,”

“Why?”

“Because Rudi and Runo were chasing me and-,”

“ _So?_ ” his dad’s voice boomed. “They start chasing you so you just scurry away? What are you, a mouse?”

“No.”

“No, _what?_ ”

Hans clenched his fists. “No, _sir_.”

His dad scowled at him. “Maybe stop acting like such a baby all the time and then they’ll stop picking on you. Have you tried that?”

Hans didn’t have a response, but his dad seemed done with the conversation anyway. 

“Ida!” he called out before turning and storming off. “Where did that woman go? I’m not cleaning this shit up!”

Once his dad was out of sight Hans bolted. He ran as fast as he could, down the hall and out the back door of the house, past the pool and the pool house, straight into the woods at the back of the property. Hans didn’t stop running until he got to one particularly large tree. He sat down at the base of it, hidden from view, and pulled his knees up to his chest. 

It was stupid. It was _so_ stupid. He didn’t do anything wrong. Why was he the one who always got in trouble and alway got yelled at even though he was never the one doing something wrong? He lowered his head down and pulled his legs tighter against his body. He hated them, he hated all of them. 

A rustling in the underbrush caused Hans to jump. But when he looked over to the source of the noise, all he saw was a small black and white kitten. It looked back at him for a moment before taking a few tentative steps in his direction. 

Hans held his hand out, palm up. The kitten flinched slightly at the movement. 

“It’s ok,” Hans said quietly. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

Slowly it began to creep towards him. As it padded closer Hans lowered his knees to sit cross-legged and the kitten climbed up into his lap. He gave it a few scratches behind the ear and smiled. 

~  
~~  
~

Hans twisted his hands together in his lap once he was done talking. It was still new to him, talking about this, but he hoped that all of the things he had just said made sense. That he had been able to properly explain it all. 

His dad wasn’t saying anything. He wasn’t saying anything and he wasn’t looking at Hans. His mom was watching him intently though, as if she was still processing all of the information. 

The three of them were sitting in the living room. His parents were in ornate chairs spaced several feet apart from each other. Hans was opposite them, sitting alone in the center of the large sofa. When was the last time his parents were actually in the same room together? Heck, he couldn’t remember the last time they were even under the same roof at the same time. This though, _this_ is what brought them together. 

“So,” his mom began. She uncrossed her legs and then recrossed them again. “So that means you could still marry a woman one day? Marry a woman, have kids, have a normal family?”

It was a crushing feeling. After everything he had just said to them, _that_ was her only question? To ask if he could still be _normal?_ The last two week had run him ragged though, and there was no fight left in him when it came to this. 

“Yes,” he said and watched as a satisfied smile crossed her face. 

She went to take a drink of her wine, but then realized her glass was empty. “Excuse me,” she said before standing and heading off in the direction of the kitchen. 

Hans turned his attention back to his dad who was now staring daggers at him. A cold chill ran through his body. 

“For once your mother and I are in agreement.” His dad stood and slowly walked over to where Hans was sitting. He looked down at him sternly. “You’re sixteen now, which makes you nearly a man. And the men in this family will act like _men_. So this will be the last time I hear any talk of this nonsense. Are we clear?”

“Yes.”

“Yes _what?_ ” 

Hans wanted to scream. To scream and curse and god knows what else. 

“Yes, sir,” he said quietly. 

His dad nodded and then left, the front door of the house slamming loudly behind him. 

~  
~~  
~

Hans jogged up the subway steps and onto the sidewalk. He gave the doorman a nod as he entered the lobby of the apartment building. “Evening, Dmitriy.” 

“Good evening, Mr. Westergaard,” Dmitriy responded. “There is a package for you over on the desk.” 

“Oh, fantastic!” Hans hurried over to pick it up. He hadn’t been sure if it would come in time. Tucking it under his arm, he made his way over to the elevator. “And for the millionth time, it’s just Hans,” he said as he stepped onto the elevator. 

“Whatever you say, Mr. Westergaard,” Dmitriy said with a small laugh as the elevator doors closed. 

As he entered the apartment, Hans dropped the package along with his bag and suit jacket onto the couch before heading into the kitchen. He loosened his tie as he opened the refrigerator. Nothing but leftover takeout boxes. It would have to do. 

He poured himself a glass of wine as he heated the leftovers up in the microwave. Taking a sip of his wine, he looked out the large windows of the apartment, watching the twinkling lights of the city skyline begin to come alive as the sun set. 

Today had been a long day, he thought with a sigh. But, it was almost the weekend. And the thought of that, along with what this weekend in particular would bring, brought a smile to his face and warmth to his chest. 

A video call coming in on his phone pulled his attention away from the view. _Ah_ , he thought as he saw who the call was coming from, _speak of the devil_. 

  


* * *

  


Hans patted the top on the car after retrieving his bags from the backseat. “See ya in a week.” His teammate gave him a wave goodbye before driving back down the long, winding driveway. 

As he stepped through the front door of the house and into the foyer Hans paused to take in the still silence of the large house. When he was little Hans had been so desperate to find some quiet time alone here. All his older brothers always made that impossible. But as the years went by all his older brothers got, well, older. One by one they moved out of their mom’s house and now Hans was the last one left. The brother closest in age to him, Frederik, had graduated college last spring. He got a job at their dad’s hedge fund, like most of his other brothers, and was currently living in an apartment in Park Slope, Brooklyn with his girlfriend. 

“Hello?” Hans called out, checking to see if his mom was home. 

“In the kitchen!” her voice responded from deep within the house.

Hans heard the pop of a wine cork as he walked into the kitchen. “Hi hun, how was the ride down?” she asked. 

“Long,” he sighed, dropping his bags to the ground and sitting in one of the chairs at the large center island. 

His mom took a wine glass down out of the cabinet and began to pour herself a drink. 

“Little early in the day, no?” Hans asked, arching an eyebrow at her. 

“I only drink this early when I have company over,” she responded dismissively. 

Hans held his arms out and gestured around the large empty kitchen. “Company?”

His mother sighed. She turned around, took another wine glass out of the cabinet, filled it halfway, and then slid it across the counter top toward him. “There.”

Hans looked at the glass and then up at his mom. She gave him a smug smirk back before taking a sip of her wine. With a roll of his eyes Hans gathered up his bags - and the glass of wine because, fuck it, why waste good wine - and headed upstairs to his room. 

~

After unpacking his bags, and drinking his wine, Hans headed into the backyard. Walking past the pool and the pool house, he made his way to the tree line at the back end of the property. In his hand was a can of cat food. He snapped the pop top of the cat can a few times, not to open it but to make a loud clicking sound. He heard a chirping meow and then saw Sitron bounding out from between the trees. 

“Hey buddy,” Hans said with a smile, squatting down. He opened the cat food can and placed it on the ground. Sitron padded over and rubbed up against Hans’s leg before chowing down on the food. Hans gave him a few scratches on the top of his head and the cat began to purr as he ate. 

“What are you doing back there?” Hans heard his mom’s voice call out.

He stood and looked back in the direction of the house. His mom was standing on the back patio with her hands on her hips. 

“Oh,” she said, sounding a bit annoyed as she saw the cat at his feet. “Don’t be letting that flea ridden thing in the house, do you hear me?”

“You talking to me or him?” Hans asked with a smile as he pointed back and forth between himself and Sitron. 

“Smart-ass.” She shook her head and went back into the house. 

~

Hans rubbed his eyes as the credits of the movie began to roll. He was laying in his bed and the only light in his room was coming from the phone screen in his hands. Minimizing the streaming app, he checked the time. 

3:26am. 

He honestly considered watching something else but then decided against it. He should try to at least get some sleep. 

~

It was past 11am by the time Hans came staggering down into the kitchen. He opened the refrigerator and surveyed his options. On the top shelf there was a row of bottles of cold brew. 

“Nice,” he said to himself as he took one out and began to make an iced coffee. 

His mom walked into the kitchen dressed for tennis with a high end gym bag slung over her shoulder. She gave him a judgmental once over. “Are you only just now waking up?”

“Yeah. So?” 

She shook her head. “What are your plans for the rest of the day?” 

Hans only shrugged. He’d probably go for a run at some point but beyond that he didn’t have any plans. 

His mom watched him for a moment before continuing on in the direction of the garage. “Well, I’m off to the club.” 

“‘K,” Hans mumbled as he began searching the cabinets for something to eat. 

~

Not much changed as each day of break came and went. Hans would stay up late watching whatever or doing whatever on his phone. He’d sleep till about midday before going downstairs to scavenge up some food. Sometimes his mom was around, sometimes she was off at the country club. 

When he wanted to see Sitron, Hans would grab a can of cat food from the stash in his room and head out to the backyard. He’d also go for runs around the neighborhood most days - needed to keep his exercise routine up for lacrosse - but other than that he rarely left his room. 

There was a part of him that truly hated being back in this house, back in this town. All the memories that came with it. At least it was only for a week. 

~

It was another day of Hans trying to sleep in when a scratching at his window woke him up. Dragging himself out of bed, he went over and opened the shade to see Sitron sitting there tapping his paw against the glass. Once he saw Hans’s face he let out a meow. The roof of the garage was even with his window and Sitron knew that this was his only entry into the house. 

Hans opened the window and Sitron jumped inside. “You have to stay in this room or my mom will kill us both.”

Sitron just purred as he hopped up on the bed and settled himself in. 

“I’ll be right back,” he told the cat. “Don’t destroy anything while I’m gone.”

Slowly, Hans made his way downstairs. 

“He lives,” his mom declared dramatically as he walked into the kitchen. She was sitting at the center island holding a mug of coffee. 

Hans just rolled his eyes and opened the refrigerator to take out a cold brew. 

“You’re not even going out anywhere at night,” she remarked. “So why do you keep sleeping in like this?”

Of course he wasn’t going out anywhere. Where the fuck was he going to go? “I’m up late watching movies and shit.”

“You don’t have a TV in your room.”

“I watch them on my phone.”

His mom huffed. “A whole home theater in the basement of this house and you watch movies on your phone. Are you going to do anything while you’re home from break besides being a bum?”

Hans shrugged. “I’m going to go see dad tomorrow.” 

“Have fun with that,” she said sarcastically. His mom stood and began to walk away but then stopped and turned back to him. “ _Don’t_ take the Audi tomorrow. The weather is going to be nice so I want to have the convertible.”

“Ok, I’ll just have to suffer through driving the Mercedes,” he responded with fake disappointment. 

She narrowed her eyes at him but the corner of her mouth curled up. “Always such a smart-ass.” 

After she left, Hans finished making his iced coffee and grabbed some snacks out of the cabinet before heading back upstairs. 

When Hans got back up to his bedroom, his eyes were caught by a pair of his socks laying on his floor. Or, at least, what was _once_ a pair of socks but was now a pulled apart pile of fabric. Sitron could act the part of a perfectly domesticated animal most of the time, but he was a street cat at heart and would sometimes decide random objects were prey and go on the attack. He was up on Hans’s bed, curled up in a ball and sleeping as if he were completely innocent. 

“Seriously?” Hans asked. “I’m gone for five minutes and my socks are destroyed?” 

Sitron peeked an eye open but then closed it and snuggled in tighter. Hans shook his head and sat down on the bed next to the cat. 

After some time his phone buzzed. Hans picked it up and then smiled when he saw what it was - a message from Anna in their group text with Kristoff. 

(Anna): _hello from NYC!_

Along with the message was a picture, a selfie of her smiling bright. He took a deep breath as he looked at it. She was so beautiful. Hans had almost told her so the last time he saw her, when their bodies were so close together in her small bed and she was laughing and his hand was on her cheek and those damn string lights of hers were making her eyes sparkle. Something had stopped him though. It was strange because he had told her she was beautiful other times before, but for some reason it had felt like too intimate of a thing to say in that particular moment. So, he told her she was sexy instead. 

Hans then noticed the view over her shoulder. Shit, was this picture taken from her parents’ place? He knew Anna’s folks were rich, but they must be really fucking loaded to have a place with a view like that. 

Ok, he couldn’t just keep staring at the picture. He needed to send a response. Looking around, his eyes landed on the cat curled up next to him. Hans snapped a picture and sent it with a message. 

(Hans): _sitron says hi_

It didn’t take her long to respond. 

(Anna): _OMG!_  
(Anna): _you never told me you have a cat!_  
(Anna): _he’s soooo cute!!_

He smiled and could almost hear Anna saying the words. There would be a small squeal in her voice and she’d probably bounce up and down a little in excitement. 

(Hans): _don’t let him fool you, he might be cute but he can be a bit of a bastard sometimes_

(Anna): _AHAHAHA_

Hans put his phone down. About a minute later a message came through from Kristoff. He tapped the screen of his phone to open it. 

_‘he might be cute but he can be a bit of a bastard sometimes’ <\--- sounds like someone i know_

Hans laughed to himself, imaging Kristoff saying the words. Grumbling them more likely, but there would be a twitch of a smile at the corner of his mouth to show that it was said in jest. 

Then another message came in from Kristoff. 

(Kristoff): _haha_

Hans was confused for a moment as it came through as a notification at the top of his screen instead of showing up in the conversation that he already had open. His smile began to fade as it all clicked. Kristoff had sent the first message to him directly instead of in the group text with Anna. The short _haha_ was what was sent in the group text. 

Seriously? Was that really something Kristoff needed to hide from her? Yes, _technically_ , if you broke it down the joke was implying that Kristoff was calling Hans cute. But it was just a _joke_. And the joke was more about calling Hans a bastard than about calling him cute. Hans had no doubt in his mind that Anna would have found it funny without suspecting anything deeper. 

A part of him wanted to text Kristoff back and tell him he was being stupid and overthinking things. But that would make him a hypocrite, wouldn’t it? Because how many times in his own life had Hans done something like that? Edited himself or clipped back bits of himself depending on the company he was in. Tomorrow afternoon he’d have to do exactly that and his shoulders sagged at the thought. 

Still, Hans wished Kristoff didn’t have to worry about it. Kristoff deserved the freeing feeling that came with being able to be yourself, fully. Hans knew Anna would accept him, if Kristoff ever did decide to come out to her. Everyone needed to do that on their own timeline though, and Hans would never want to pressure Kristoff to do anything he wasn’t ready for. 

He sent Kristoff back a winking emoji. 

~

The next day when Hans came down into the kitchen he found it empty. He looked around as he walked over to the refrigerator. “Mom?”

Through the window in the kitchen he could see out into the backyard. His mom was standing way out at the edge of the property, down by the tree line. She seemed to be looking for something. Hans watched her for a moment before opening the refrigerator and taking out the cold brew. 

~

That afternoon Hans sat parked in the driveway of his dad’s house, eyes closed and forehead resting against the steering wheel, as he mentally prepared himself for the next couple of hours. It was going to be an afternoon of pretending. Pretending to like his dad’s jokes. Pretending to agree with his dad’s views. Pretending like he wanted a job at his dad’s hedge fund after graduation. Pretending that he was straight. 

Hans thought about Kristoff and how his dad took off before he was even born. What was worse: Never knowing your dad or knowing him and knowing he was the biggest piece of shit ever? 

Only a couple of hours, he reminded himself, then he could go. With a groan he dragged himself out of the car and up to the front door to ring the bell. A woman he didn’t recognize answereded. She was dressed in a sports bra and a tight pair of yoga pants. 

“Hi, can I help you?” she asked. 

Seemed like the Maserati in the driveway wasn’t the only thing his dad recently traded in for a newer model. Though that was something Hans had gotten used to by now and he had long ago stopped trying to remember any of their names. 

Hans was seven years old the first time he met one of his dad’s girlfriends. Not that he realized that’s what she was at the time. His mom was away for the weekend, up in Connecticut visiting her sister. His dad left Hans and his brothers with a woman they didn’t know while he went golfing, and he made them swear to not tell their mom about it. When his dad came back later that day, Hans saw him and the woman kissing. His parents divorced three years later and it wasn’t until even more years after that that Hans finally put all the pieces together. 

“Yeah, I’m here to see my dad,” he said. 

“Oh!” Realization dawned across the woman’s face. “Yes, Victor said one of his sons was coming over today to watch the game.” She opened the door wider. “Come in, come in.” 

As he followed her deeper into the house Hans tried to place her age. Mid to late twenties maybe? It felt like they kept getting younger. Or perhaps they always stayed the same age and it was just that Hans was getting older. It was with a sickening feeling that he realized one day there would be one younger than him. Hopefully he wouldn’t have to come here anymore before _that_ ever happened. One day he wouldn’t need his dad’s money anymore and then he wouldn’t have to come here and kiss the ring anymore either. 

The woman stopped when they reached the kitchen and turned back to face him. “Which one are you?”

“Hans.”

“Hans,” she repeated with a smile. “You’re the one that’s still in college, right?”

He nodded. “Yeah.”

She leaned a hip against the kitchen counter and played with the ends of her long hair. “Sorry again for not realizing who you were at first. So silly of me. It should have been obvious.” Her eyes swept up and down him. “You look so much like your dad.” 

_Yikes._

“So, is my dad in the den?” Hans asked, completely ignoring whatever the fuck that was. 

“Goddamn piece of shit umpire!” his dad’s voice boomed from deep within the house. 

“Yeah, he’s-,” the woman began as she pushed off from the counter and took a step in his direction. 

Hans raised a hand and began walking. “I know the way.” 

His dad’s den had a wide screen TV mounted to the wall and large sectional sofa. There was a bar over on one side of the room and the walls were covered with sports memorabilia. His dad would sometimes brag about which ones were gifts from famous athletes, thanks you’s for helping them invest their fortunes. 

“There he is!” his dad said as Hans walked into the room. “You’re late, it’s already the third inning. Come, take a seat.” 

Hans sat down on the sofa, slouching low and keeping his hands tucked into his pockets. 

“Have you spoken to Frederik, recently?” his dad asked but then continued on without waiting for an answer. “He’s been doing great so far at the fund. Just got himself a promotion.”

Definitely earned purely on merit, Hans thought sarcastically. 

“Don’t forget, there is a job waiting for you there once you graduate.” 

“Awesome,” Hans said, faking interest. He would never fucking work for his dad. 

“How’s your mother?”

“She’s fine,” he answered, bracing for what was to come next. 

“That fucking bitch,” his dad grumbled. “Still bilking alimony out of me while living in that house I paid for.” 

As if this house he was living in now wasn’t bigger and nicer. Hans slouched further down into the couch. 

“You hungry?” his dad asked. “You want some lunch?”

“No, I’m good.”

“Tammi!” his dad shouted.

The woman who had answered the door before (Tammi, apparently) hurried into the room. “Yes?”

“Go make us some lunch, will ya sweetheart? And,” he held up his beer bottle, “I need a refill.” 

“Sure thing.” She walked over to take the empty bottle away from his dad and then turned to Hans. “You want a beer too?” 

“No, thank you,” Hans answered. 

“Of course he wants one,” his dad insisted. 

Always a fun feeling, Hans thought dryly, to be somewhere he didn’t want to be and to also be completely ignored while there. 

Tammi went over to the small mini fridge behind the bar to get them beers. She flashed them each a smile as she handed them their beers and headed back in the direction of the kitchen. 

His dad watched as she left and then leaned towards Hans. “Dumb as dirt, that one. But a great piece of ass.” 

Hans nodded and took a swig of his beer. 

“I don’t need to tell you though, _college boy_. I’m sure you’re getting plenty of ass up at that school.” 

“Oh yeah, all kinds of ass,” he said with a smile, knowing his dad wouldn’t catch his actual meaning of _all kinds_. 

He barked out a laugh and slapped Hans on the shoulder. “‘Atta boy.”

Hans wondered what kind of reaction he would get if he brought Anna around to meet his mom and dad. Probably a good one. A nice girl. A pretty girl. And, most importantly, a rich girl. The reaction he would get if he brought Kristoff around to meet them would be far more entertaining though. 

“Have that fun now,” his dad said, cutting into his thoughts. “But just make sure you don’t get yourself too attached to any college girl. That’s not the type you want once you graduate. A college degree gives them a high and mighty attitude. And living in dorms turns them into whores.” 

Hans clenched his jaw and tightened his grip on the beer bottle. Only a couple of hours. 

~

That night, back in his room, Hans dug through the bags that he brought home with him. He emptied each one, desperately searching, but coming up empty. 

“Fuck,” he cursed as he threw the last bag down on the ground. He had left his edibles at school. Running a hand through his hair, he groaned. He needed _something_. Well, if he couldn’t get high then he was at least going to get drunk. 

Quietly he headed downstairs, not wanting to draw his mom’s attention - wherever she was. The basement of the house was mostly taken up with a home theater. There was a large projector screen and several rows of plush leather recliners. Along the back wall, though, was what he came down here for - a bar. 

Squatting down behind the bar, Hans began to look through bottles and decide on what he wanted. A sound caught him off guard and Hans shot up, standing straight. 

His mom was at the bottom on the stairs, looking just as surprised to see him. “What are you doing down here?”

Hans moved the bottle he was holding behind his back. “Nothing.”

She walked over to him and fixed him with a hard stare. Knowing he was caught, and that there was no point in hiding, he took the bottle out from behind his back. 

“Johnnie Walker _Blue_. No. Give that to me.” She took the bottle out of his hand and waved him away. “You go drink some of the cheap stuff.” 

Turning back around, Hans grabbed the Tito’s and proceeded to make himself a vodka soda. 

His mom poured herself some of the blue label. “Why are you down here raiding my liquor cabinet anyway?”

Hans walked out from behind the bar and sat down in one of the recliners. “I had an aggravating day,” he grumbled as he slouched low in the seat. 

“Oh, poor you,” his mom said in a mocking tone. She sat down in a recliner in the same row as him, but leaving an empty one in between them. 

“What number drink is that, by the way?” Hans asked, needling her back. 

“None of your business,” she said, taking a sip. “How is your father?”

“You really want to know?”

She rolled her eyes at that and then crossed her legs. “I just can’t believe you would go and spend a whole afternoon with that asshole.”

Hans glared over at her. “I don’t go there because I _want_ to. I go there so he keeps paying my tuition and my credit card bill.”

“Me? I can’t get two words out of you this whole week,” she said bitterly. “But him? He gets a whole afternoon.”

Fucking unbeliveable. Didn’t she hear what he just said? 

“No you’re right,” he began, letting the sarcasm flow. “Because this right here? _Sooo_ much fun. Don’t know why I don’t do it more often.”

“Smart-ass,” she jeered. “It’s not like you have anything better to do while you’re home. No friends to go visit or anything.” 

Hans felt the muscles in his shoulders tighten. It was nothing. It was years ago now, didn’t matter to him anymore. 

“I’m sorry,” she said after some time, a slight wobble in her voice. “That was cruel.”

“It’s ok,” Hans said quietly, keeping his eyes on his drink. 

“Tell me, how is school? How are all your classes going?” she asked because apparently it was a perfectly appropriate time to change the subject. 

“Fine,” Hans said, deciding she didn’t deserve anything more than one word answers right now.

“What about lacrosse? How is that going?”

As if she cared. It had been years since she last came to one of his games. Hans closed his eyes and leaned back in the recliner. “Good.”

“How’s your social life?”

“Great.”

“Do you have a girlfriend?”

“No.”

“Do you have a boyfriend?”

Hans opened his eyes and looked at her again. She was looking back at him as if her question were completely ordinary. As if they hadn’t only talked about his bisexuality that one time. As if she hadn’t so casually dismissed it and then pretend the conversation never happened. 

“No,” he said again, trying to keep his voice even. 

His mom hummed as she took another sip of her drink. “I guess that’s all still for the best right now. You know I was nineteen when I married your father?”

“Yes,” he nodded. 

“It feels so long ago. But also, not so long.” She fiddled with her necklace as she stared off into nothing. “When you boys were growing up, oh, what I wouldn’t have given for a moment of peace and quiet. Thirteen boys in one house? _God._ ” A frustrated laugh escaped her. “But then suddenly? You boys are gone and I have a quiet house. And now the quiet nearly kills me. All alone in this huge place. Even that stupid cat doesn’t want to spend time with me.”

Hans can hear the slight slur in her words. He knows she’s had a lot to drink tonight. But he’s also never heard her talk about things like this before, drunk or not. “Why do you stay here then?” he asked her. “Why not sell the house and downsize? Move into one of those condos near the country club? They’re nice.”

“Sell the house where I raised my babies?” she responded, horrified. As if they weren’t raised by an ever changing series of nannies over the years. His mom shook her head. “The grandkids love this house. They love coming to swim in the pool and play on the basketball court and watch movies down here in the theater. Besides, where else could I host all you boys and all the grandkids all at once every Christmas Eve? Definitely not in some _condo_.”

She was right about that, their family was constantly multiplying. As more and more of his older brothers got married and started having kids Hans had begun to lose track of just how many nieces and nephews he had out there. But there was always at least one new baby each year when they were all together for Christmas Eve. 

“How did it happen so fast? My baby, now the same age I was when I got married.” Her voice was sad and soft as she looked over at him. She seemed to hesitate before speaking again. “If you do end up marrying a man, please make sure he’s not a man like your father. When I never had a daughter, I thought I would never have to give that warning. But-, but _please_ , promise me you won’t.” 

Hans wanted to say that he was never getting married at all. That he would never trust his heart in another person’s hands, no matter their gender. But his mom was offering him something here. Even if it didn’t feel like complete acceptance, it was at least an acknowledgement. An admittance that the things he had told her years earlier were actually true. 

“I promise,” he said, sincerely. 

She nodded, seemingly comforted. Tilting her head back she finished off her drink. 

“You’re not going to tell me to not _be_ a man like him either?” Hans asked. 

She shrugged. “I don’t have to. You were always the least like him. Out of all you boys, I could tell from early on, you were the least like him.” 

Hans didn’t know what to say. He wanted to thank her and he wanted to hug her and he wanted to cry. 

“I’m going to bed,” his mom said eventually, standing and heading for the stairs. “Goodnight.” 

“Goodnight,” he responded. Hans sat looking down at the drink in his lap for a while. He turned it around in his hands before standing. Walking over to the bar, he dumped the rest of the drink into the sink before heading up to bed himself. 

~

On his last full day home from break Hans needed to go for another run. All of the runs that he had gone on so far during break were just around the neighborhood. Today though, Hans felt like a little change in scenery. Besides, he might as well go see the ocean before heading back upstate. 

He got in the car and headed south. Within twenty minutes he was driving across the bridge that would take him over the bay and to the barrier island that separated the main island from the ocean. 

Hans took a deep breath as he reached the boardwalk of the beach, taking in the comforting and familiar senses. The smell of the salt in the air, the sight and sound of the waves crashing, the cawing of the seagulls. 

He did a few light stretches before beginning his run. 

On a summer afternoon the boardwalk and beach would be packed full of people. Unlike the other beaches along this barrier island, which were town beaches and therefore only open to local residents, this beach was a state park and open to anyone. On sweltering summer days people from all over the island and even from the city would come here seeking relief from the heat. In the winter the winds off the water were bitter cold, almost too cold to even bear. But in spring and fall, there was a balance. Nice enough weather to enjoy but without the crowds of the summer. 

As he ran Hans passed folks out for walks or sitting on benches. A few people even down on the sand in beach chairs reading books. When he got to the end of the two mile long boardwalk he turned around and ran the full length back. As he neared where he started, Hans stopped and leaned against the railing of the boardwalk, looking out towards the ocean. 

Anna would insist on going down to the water’s edge if she were here. She’d take off her shoes and roll up the legs of her pants in order to stand in the water. As the waves came in she would dance away so as not to get wet above her ankles. 

Kristoff would be standing a few feet back, his arms crossed and a frown on his face. He would declare that the water would still be way too cold at this time of year and so there would be no way he was getting anywhere near it. 

Anna would whine _come on_ and try to pull him by the arm towards the water, but she wouldn’t be able to budge him an inch. Hans would pretend to be in agreement with Anna just so Kristoff would feel the peer pressure. Anna would declare that the water wasn’t _cold_ , it was _refreshing_. Hans would point out that Kristoff was the one who was from way up north anyway so the cold shouldn’t bother him. Besides, he should stop being such a wuss. 

Eventually Kristoff would crack a smile and then sigh and say _fine_. He’d grumble out some curses as his feet touched the cold water. But then Anna would hug him tight around his waist and he’d smile over at Hans. Then the three of them would lay a blanket out on the sand and they’d all sit together, watching the waves. 

Hans looked down at his feet and then scrunched up his face as he looked back out at the water. Silly. Why would the two of them ever be here at the beach with him? He turned and walked back towards the car.

~

The next morning, Hans came down into the kitchen carrying his bags. His mom was standing next to the large center island in the kitchen, holding a coffee mug in both hands. 

“Leaving soon?” she asked.

“Yes,” he said, dropping his bags to the floor. “My teammate should be here soon.” 

She pressed her lips together and then nodded. “I’ll see you in a couple months then, at the end of the semester.” 

“Yeah,” he agreed.

Looking back down at her coffee, his mom took another sip. Hans saw the sadness she was trying to hide and he thought about her words from the other night. 

An idea came to him then. “I, uh, I left something upstairs. I’ll be right back.”

Hans hurried up to his room, gathered up the contents of his top desk drawer, and came back down. His mom’s eyebrows went up as she watched him deposit all of the cat food cans onto the kitchen counter. 

“Sitron is a street cat, so he can always find his own food. But he likes this stuff. He knows the sound of the can. If you click the pop top a few times like,” Hans picked up one and demonstrated, “like that then he’ll come running from wherever he is.”

She looked down at the cat food cans and then back up at him. “I suppose I could feed that cat now and then while you’re gone. Wouldn’t want the poor thing to starve.” There was a softness in her voice and she smiled at him.

The sound of a car horn honking came from the front of the house. 

“That’s my ride,” Hans said as he gathered up his bags. 

“O-ok,” she said as she placed her coffee mug down on the counter. 

They walked together in silence to the front of the house. As they got to the door Hans turned back to look at his mom. He wanted to say something more to her, but he couldn’t find the words. 

She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into a tight hug. “I love you, baby.”

He hugged her back as best he could while holding his bags. “I love you too, ma.” 

With one last squeeze she let him go and Hans headed out the door and to the waiting car. 

“Hey man,” his teammate said as Hans sat down in the passenger seat. 

“Hey,” Hans responded as he buckled his seatbelt, settling in for the long drive back to school.


	28. Kristoff

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Content warning: death/grief, struggles with sexual identity]

Kristoff sat on the floor of the living room playing with his action figures. He liked to do the voices and act out scenes from his favorite movies and comic books. The action figure that he was most excited about was his newest one - Wolverine, the _coolest_ of all the X-Men.

“You enjoying your birthday present?” Grandma Bulda asked as she walked into the room.

“Yes!” he beamed, holding his Wolverine figure tight. “It’s _so_ cool, thank you _so_ much.”

“Come on into the kitchen,” she said, waving him over. “I have something else for you.”

Kristoff stood and bounded into the kitchen. There on the table was a homemade cake with ten candles in it. 

“Is this whole cake for me?” he asked with awe as he climbed up onto one of the chairs. 

“Hopefully I can have a slice?” she responded with a wink as she slid into the chair next to him. 

“Of course!” Kristoff said with a big smile. 

Grandma Bulda gave him a kiss on the top of his head. “Ten is a milestone birthday, Kristoff. That means it’s a special one. So make sure you make a special wish.” 

Kristoff took a deep breath in and then blew out the candles, concentrating hard on his wish. 

_A big family._

~  
~~  
~

Paige pulled up outside of his grandma’s house and put the car in park. Kristoff looked over at her from where he sat in the passenger seat. 

“Did you want me to come in?” Paige asked, somewhat hesitant. “I could stay with you tonight. If you want.” 

“No, it’s ok,” Kristoff said with a shake of his head. “It’s late and I have an early class tomorrow.”

She nodded and then reached out and took his hand. “You had a good time today though, right?”

“Yes. Yes, I had a great time,” he assured her, forcing a smile. “Thank you for everything. I’m just tired, that’s all.” 

Paige had done her best to make his birthday a happy one, but there was still a cloud over everything. There had been a part of Kristoff that didn’t want to do anything besides staying in bed and sleeping all day, to turn twenty hidden away from everything. But Paige had convinced him to get out of the house and in the end Kristoff was thankful. Besides, Grandma Bulda had always said that milestone birthdays were supposed to be special. 

“I love you, Kristoff,” she said quietly as she rubbed her thumb back and forth across the back of his hand and then gave it a squeeze. Paige tried to hide it but Kristoff could see it in her eyes. The sympathy. The worry. The not knowing what to do to make things better. She was a great girlfriend and he sometimes wondered if he deserved her. 

Kristoff reached a hand up to her face and then leaned in to kiss her. “I love you, too.” 

They said their goodbyes and then he headed inside. After stepping through the front door, Kristoff stood in the entryway and listened to the silence of the small house. The house where he now lived alone. 

He turned the light on as he walked into the kitchen. Sitting down at the table he looked out over all of the papers scattered across the top of it. Medical bills, utility bills, all kinds of bills. The funeral was only two weeks ago, but there were bills for that now too. In the center of it all was his transfer acceptance letter from Arendelle University. It was something that he had wanted for so long, but now every time he looked at it all he could feel was a crushing ache in his chest. 

Grandma Bulda hadn’t lived long enough to see him graduate from community college, to be the first person in their family to ever earn something higher than a high school diploma. And Kristoff _would_ graduate. There was only half a semester left and it was all already paid for. So he knew for sure he’d be getting his associates degree. But as for his bachelor's degree? 

Kristoff picked the acceptance letter up off the table and held it in his hands. He looked over the words on the page and the school logo up at the top - a yellow crocus over a deep green and purple shield. Then, slowly, he crumpled the paper until it was nothing more than a tight ball in his hands. 

He _would_ get his bachelor’s degree. One day. He was not canceling the dream. He refused to. It just needed to be delayed for a little while. 

~  
~~  
~

Kristoff looked out across the backyard, hands in his pockets and eyes tilted up to the sky. It was a beautiful evening, the warmth of spring was finally back. He wanted to keep watching the setting sun and how it cast streaks of pink, purple, and blue across the sky, but his attention was instead drawn to the chocolate lab running back up to him. Kristoff squatted down as it approached. He went to take the tennis ball out of the dog’s mouth, but it held tight. 

“Sven, we’ve gone over this,” Kristoff said with a chuckle, “If you want me to throw the ball again then you need to give it back to me.” 

“No take! Only throw!” Kristoff responded back to himself in his Sven voice. 

After a bit more wrangling, the dog finally gave up the ball. Kristoff stood and threw it deep across the large backyard. With an excited bark Sven took off after it, giving Kristoff the chance to return to his thoughts. 

Thirty. _Thirty._ Fuck, that felt old. A big milestone birthday for sure. 

Was this how he imagined his life looking at thirty? He glanced back over his shoulder at the house and thought about the little one that he grew up in. It was small and bare, but Grandma Bulda always made it feel like a home. How many times over could that little house fit into this one that he now owned? 

Sven ran back up to him then, dropping the ball at his feet. 

  


* * *

  


During the first few days of mid-semester break Kristoff barely left his apartment. It wasn’t intentional, he just didn’t have any reason to. Without any classes or work-study he didn’t actually need to go to campus. But staying in this apartment all week was going to give him cabin fever. He could already feel it itching under his skin. 

The library would be nearly empty he figured, so it might actually be a nice place to get some work done. Besides, he needed to stop at the ATM in the student union building. 

Kristoff switched his sweatpants out for jeans, grabbed his backpack, and headed over to campus. 

~

On a normal day the student union building would be bustling with activity. It housed the bookstore, a cafe, a lounge with billiards and foosball tables, as well as offices and meeting spaces for all of the student organizations on campus. But today, as Kristoff walked through it, he found it was nearly empty. He looked in all directions to confirm that there was definitely no one around before stopping as he passed by one room in particular. 

_The Q Center_

He knew _of_ this place and had passed by it many times before, but he had never been inside. As with many other places on campus, it was closed during break. Kristoff could see that all the lights were turned off behind the glass doors and floor to ceiling windows that spanned it’s front entrance. There was a large banner hung above the doors that declared: 

_A Safe Space For LGBTQ+ Students_

Kristoff stared at the _B_. Bisexual. That was him. He had said it out loud to Hans and he was feeling more comfortable with using it to describe himself in his own thoughts. But there was still a voice in the back of his mind telling him that he didn’t have the right to use the word. That it was a word that should only be used by _real_ bisexual people. Whatever that meant. People who were out, he supposed. People like Hans. People who actually knew stuff about... all of this. 

He looked around at the rest of the entrance to the center. All of the glass was nearly covered with colorful signs and banners and flags. There were rainbow flags which Kristoff knew, obviously, were gay pride flags. But there were other flags taped up to the windows as well. Ones with light blue and light pink and white stripes. Ones with pink and purple and blue stripes. Ones with purple and white and and gray and black stripes. Ones with pink and yellow and blue stripes. And still more all over in different varieties of colors. Kristoff had no idea what any of _their_ meanings were. 

A _real_ bisexual would know what all those flags meant, he thought to himself. 

_All Are Welcome_ a sign proclaimed. 

If Kristoff were to walk in there one day when it was open, what would people’s reaction be? He imagined a room full of suspicious eyes staring at him and wondering why some giant straight guy was invading _their_ space. 

Kristoff looked down at himself. He knew he was straight passing. It had made lying to himself and ignoring his own thoughts easier for so many years. But it also made telling the truth to himself that much harder. A double edged sword he supposed. 

_Queer Community_ another sign read. 

The word still made him wince slightly. Kristoff always thought it was a bad word. A derogatory word, a slur even. But Hans had used the word in a self descriptive way. Though Hans also liked to use the word ‘cocksucker’ in a self descriptive way, so who the fuck knows. 

There it was though, right there on the sign. And the letter _Q_ was just two letters down from the _B_ in the acronym. And this place even had the letter _Q_ in its name. So, that meant the word was ok? Right? 

All these thoughts and questions swirled around in his mind. Kristoff didn’t know which were legitimate and which were the result of stupid preconceptions and internalized whatever-the-fuck. 

He wished Hans were around. 

Maybe Kristoff could call him. Hans had said he could go to him with questions on these types of things, and Kristoff had done so a number of times already. But it was one thing to do so while they were alone in his apartment, sitting together on his couch or half naked together in his bed. It felt like a whole different thing to just call Hans out of blue. Because, _christ_ , how needy and annoying would that make him look? 

_‘Hi, Hans? Yes, sorry to bother you while you’re home on break but I’m having a bi crisis. Please just talk to me until I feel better.’_

Kristoff chewed at the inside of his cheek and then continued walking. 

~

The next day Kristoff was back in the library when his phone buzzed. He picked it up and saw that it was a message from Anna in their group text with Hans. 

(Anna): _hello from NYC!_

Along with the message was a picture that she had taken of herself. Kristoff smiled and brought his other hand up to the phone. Her bright aqua eyes, her freckle covered cheeks scrunched up from her beautiful smile, a few strands of her hair caught up in the breeze. 

As Kristoff stared at the picture, a series of other messages came through. 

(Hans): _sitron says hi_

(Anna): _OMG!_  
(Anna): _you never told me you have a cat!_  
(Anna): _he’s soooo cute!!_

(Hans): _don’t let him fool you, he might be cute but he can be a bit of a bastard sometimes_

(Anna): _AHAHAHA_

They were always so fast with their texting. He could never keep up. But Kristoff smirked as an idea came to him and he began to type a response: _sounds like someone i know_

His thumb hovered over the screen but a flash of fear stopped him. Hans would find it funny, Kristoff was sure of that. But what would Anna think of it? It was a joke but it was also kind of flirty, wasn’t it? Anna obviously knew that Hans was bi. So, if Kristoff was acting flirty with a guy that Anna _knew_ was into guys, wouldn’t send up huge red flags that Kristoff was also into guys? He felt an uneasy swirl in his gut. No, not yet. He wasn’t ready for her to know yet. 

Kristoff erased the message and then sent it to Hans directly. He also made sure to send a message in the group text so it didn’t look to Anna like he was ignoring those messages. 

(Kristoff): _haha_

A message came through from Hans then - a winking emoji in response to his joke. Kristoff smiled as he looked down at his phone, imagining Hans winking at him for real with that sly smirk and gleam in his eyes. 

Kristoff put his phone back down and did his best to refocus on his studying. 

~

That night Kristoff sat on his couch, nursing a beer and flipping through the channels on the TV. Basically trying to kill time before going to bed. And also trying not to think about all the things he was missing. 

Friday nights, Anna and Hans here in his apartment. The three of them laughing and joking, doing their weekly class assignment and eating cheap pizza before heading out drinking. Later on Friday on nights, coming back here with Anna. The two of them slowly undressing each other and finding splendid intimacy in his bed. Saturday mornings, waking up with Anna in his arms. Him cooking her eggs for breakfast and the two of them playing the part of a domestic couple for a few hours. Sunday afternoons alone with Hans. Where Kristoff could grab him by the hips and touch his face and kiss him, all hidden away from the eyes of the rest of the world. 

How quickly all these things went from not existing to being such routine and looked forwarded to parts of his week. 

This mid-semester break was only a week long and he was already missing them. What would it be like in a couple of months when the semester was over and Anna and Hans were gone for the whole summer? Not to mention the fact that Kristoff might not even still be around when the two of them came back to school the following fall. 

There was a company, VLR Technologies, whose headquarters were only a half hour away from campus. It was a place he could conceivably get a job once he graduated. Kristoff knew that Professor Oaken was friendly with some of the folks over there. VLR Technologies had partnered with the University often over the years for research. Maybe, _possibly_ , he could put in a good word for Kristoff. If Kristoff got a job there then he wouldn’t have to move far away. Heck, he wouldn’t have to move out of this very apartment if he didn’t want to. But even if they _were_ hiring and even if he _did_ get a job interview and even _with_ a recommendation from Oaken, it still didn’t mean he’d definity get a job there. And he wouldn’t be able to wait around after graduation hoping for it to happen. He simply didn’t have the funds. If a job offer came in from a company on the other side of the state, he’d have to take that instead. 

It was all a reminder as to why he needed to keep things casual between himself and Anna. And between himself and Hans. When it came to them, and what he had with them, nothing was guaranteed beyond this semester. 

~

Kristoff weaved his way up and down the aisles of the grocery store, doing his weekly shopping. He picked up some milk and some eggs. There was a sale on the kind of soup he liked, so he got a few extra cans. Kristoff tossed a few bags of chips into the cart and smiled to himself. 

As he walked down the personal care aisle Kristoff picked himself up some more deodorant. Chewing on his lip and glancing over both shoulders he also grabbed a box of condoms and a bottle of lube. Kristoff began to push the shopping cart away when he stopped, backed up, picked a second bottle of lube off the shelf, and then quickly exited the aisle. 

Circling back around the outer wall of the store, he passed by the bakery section. Kristoff drummed his fingers on the handle of the shopping cart as he eyed the cakes in the display case. They looked pretty good. It would be a pretty fat ass thing to do, though, wouldn’t it? To buy a whole cake just for himself? He looked back in his cart and did some mental math. There was still some room in the grocery budget as long as he got one of the smaller ones. 

Fuck it, he’d get one. Besides, what was a birthday without cake? 

~

Back in his apartment, after putting away the rest of the groceries, Kristoff sat the cake on the kitchen counter and got out a fork. He was about to dig in when a voice inside him told him to be at least _somewhat_ civilized. So, taking out a knife and plate, he cut himself a slice and walked over to the livingroom to eat it on the couch. 

Kristoff sat down on the couch, put his feet up on the coffee table, and took a bite of the cake. 

Twenty-four. Not a milestone birthday in any way, but it was a shift from being in his _early_ twenties to being in his _mid_ twenties. 

He took another bite of cake and looked around the empty apartment. This was the fourth birthday in a row that he was spending alone. He thought he had gotten used to it, but it felt different this year somehow. Perhaps it was that this was the first time in a long time that there were actually people in his life that Kristoff would want to spend his birthday with. 

Anna. Hans. 

Not only were they not here, they didn’t even know it was his birthday. It’s not that he was intentionally trying to hide it from them, it was simply that the topic had never come up. And making some grand announcement about when his birthday was going to be would have made it seem like he was expecting something from them, like gifts or something. He didn’t need them to buy him anything. 

He wondered what it would be like if they did know. It’s not like they would be here right now anyway. They’d both still be home for break. But if they _were_ here?

Hans would have found something about the cake to complain about. Scrunch up his nose at the idea of it being a grocery store cake instead of from a real bakery. He would name some place downstate that made much better cakes. 

Anna would have shushed Hans and then given him a chiding smack on the arm. She’d say the cake was perfectly fine but she would insist on candles and singing happy birthday. She would also have brought those little birthday themed paper plates with balloons on them for the three of them to eat the cake off of. 

Hans would needle Kristoff about being older, ask if he was going to start needing reading glasses soon or something like that. But then Hans would give Kristoff a genuine smile and wish him a happy birthday. 

Anna and Hans both would declare the importance of going out and drinking on one’s birthday. Kristoff would be dragged to some house party and maybe even The Trading Post. They would be able to talk him into some birthday shots but not a birthday keg stand. At the end of the night the three of them would stagger back to the apartment and collapse onto the couch. 

Kristoff had a fleeting vision of himself sitting right where he was currently, in the center of his couch. But instead of being alone, Anna and Hans on either side of him. Both were tucked in close under each arm, their heads resting on his chest and their eyes closed. 

With a blink and a shake of the head Kristoff pushed that vision aside and took another bite of his cake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to Molly ([seethedawn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seethedawn/pseuds/Seethedawn)) for originally giving me the idea of having Kristoff’s birthday happen during break. 
> 
> And so concludes this little three chapter run of them being on break. Next chapter our trio will all be back together again. I hope you’ve enjoyed this deeper look into their individual lives past, present, and future. I know I hit on some heavy topics in these chapters, so if there is ever anything that you think I haven’t properly tagged for or left a content warning for _please_ let me know. 
> 
> I wanted to once again give a big THANK YOU to everyone who reads and comments and leaves kudos. Your feedback means so much to me. I’m incredibly excited for everything that’s going to happen in the second half of the semester and I hope you all will enjoy it too.


	29. Chapter 29

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back from break - Part 1

Elsa pulled up in front of Castle Hall and put the car in park. There was a lot of activity, students getting dropped off and carrying bags into the residence hall. She looked over to the passenger seat where Anna was sitting. Her sister had been uncharacteristically quiet on the long drive up to school. It was less than twenty-four hours since their parents had dropped the news on them regarding their divorce, so it wasn’t completely unexpected. But still, she hated seeing Anna like this. 

“I can help you carry your bags up,” Elsa offered.

“It’s ok,” Anna said. Her phone buzzed in her lap and she picked it up to look at it. “That’s Ryder anyway, I had texted him as soon as we hit campus. He’s coming down.”

Elsa squeezed the steering wheel tighter. If Ryder was already here at the dorm, that meant Maren would already be back at their apartment. 

“Besides,” Anna continued, putting on a small smile, “campus security is crazy with the parking tickets on days like this.” 

“That’s true,” Elsa said, giving her a smile back. She reached across the center console to give her sister a hug. “Call me whenever. And I’ll see you on Sunday.” 

“Thank you,” Anna said, hugging her back. “For everything.” 

~

As soon as Elsa walked through the door of the apartment she heard quick footsteps coming up the hallway. Maren appeared then, pausing as their eyes met, and then hurrying back up to close the distance between them. Elsa dropped her bags at her feet and wrapped her arms around her girlfriend. “I missed you.”

“Missed you, too.” Maren ran a hand up and down Elsa’s back. “How are you?” 

“I’m alright.”

“How’s Anna?”

“Less alright.”

“Come,” Maren said as she picked up half Elsa’s stuff. “Let’s talk.” Elsa grabbed up the rest of her stuff and they headed to the bedroom. 

Elsa put a bag down on the bed and immediately began to unpack. “I can’t believe they’re going to make us choose which one of them to move in with once they sell the townhouse. Offering it up as if they were doing us some kind of favor.” 

Maren sat down on the edge of the bed. “It won’t be until the fall, right? So, maybe you won’t have to choose. I know neither of us have jobs lined up yet for after graduation, but that’ll happen soon enough. So come fall we should be all settled in wherever we’re going to end up.” 

Maren was always so confident that things would easily fall into place for them after graduation. Elsa couldn’t help but worry though. What if they weren’t able to find jobs near each other? The idea of being apart for extended periods of time? Of a long distance relationship? Just this one week apart had been hard enough. 

“I suppose so,” Elsa said, trying to keep her hands busy with unpacking her clothes. “But, Anna though. She’s still only a freshman so she has years before she’s on her own. I just know she’s going to feel guilty about having to pick. That’s going to be hard for her. She’ll probably try to spend equal amounts of time at each of their new places because, in her mind, anything else would be playing favorites. And she won’t want to do that.” Elsa tossed a shirt down in frustration. “But neither of them will ever be around so she’ll just be going back and forth between two empty apartments. I hate the idea of her having to face all of that on her own.”

“She could always stay with us,” Maren said casually. 

“What?”

“She’s an adult, right? She can stay wherever she wants. It’s not like we’d be adopting her.”

Elsa sat down on the edge of the bed next to Maren. “You would be ok with that? Anna staying with us during school breaks for the rest of her time in college?”

“Of course,” Maren said as if it were nothing. To be able to do that for Anna would mean the world to Elsa. The fact that Maren was offering it without a second thought proved how much she understood. 

Elsa leaned forward to kiss her girlfriend. “I love you.”

Maren let out a pleasant hum and stole another quick kiss. “I love you too, Els.”

“You know,” Elsa said, taking one of Maren’s hands in hers. “Anna said something at dinner one night over break that made me think. She was saying how she was happy to be home but that she missed school. When she said it, it just, it really struck me.” 

“Why’s that?”

“Because I realized that it didn’t feel like I was home. That place where I grew up, that’s not what feels like home anymore. This,” Elsa placed a hand on her girlfriend’s cheek, “This is what feels like home to me now, being with you.”

She leaned her face into the touch. “I feel the same way.” Then Maren kissed her again, warm and lingering. Elsa felt fingers curling into her hair and she pulled Maren closer to her on the bed. 

{ ~ }

Students slowly filtered into the classroom and Kristoff nervously tapped his pen against his book. He kept looking over his shoulder at the door, waiting for either Anna or Hans to walk in. This was going to be the first time seeing either of them since before break. 

Kristoff felt a swooping sensation in his gut as Hans appeared in the doorway. He had his backpack slug casually over one shoulder and and he was walking with that easy confidence he always seemed to have and his green eyes lit up as they landed on Kristoff and, _man_ , if they were alone in his apartment right now...

Hans gave him a friendly pat on the back as he passed by Kristoff and then sat down, leaving an empty desk in between them as always for Anna. “Hey, man. How was your break?”

“It was great. Great. Really, ah, great.” 

_Smooth._

Hans seemed amused by his awkwardness though. “We still, um,” he leaned towards him a bit and lowered his voice. “Are we still on for watching the game on Sunday?”

Kristoff swallowed, knowing that there was no game and that they had never made any plans for this Sunday but also knowing exactly what Hans was asking. He instinctively looked over his shoulder at the door of the classroom to check for Anna. No sign of her. 

“Yeah,” he said, smiling. “Absolutely.” 

Hans smiled back but was prevented from saying anything further by the professor starting up class. Kristoff glanced back at the door once more and then at the empty desk where Anna normally sat before turning his attention to the front of the room. 

It was nearly ten minutes into class before Anna slipped into the desk between them. She gave them each a small nod, barely making eye contact, before quickly taking her books out. 

“Hey,” Kristoff whispered to her. “Nice of you to join us.” 

Anna gave him a half smile and another nod before looking forward. Kristoff watched her for a moment longer, waiting for what he did not know. Did she not realize that he was just teasing? Or maybe she was feeling bad about being late for class. He snuck glances at her all class long. Anna sat a bit hunched, elbow on the desk and head leaning into her hand and she scribbled away her notes with the other. 

Once class was over, Anna was instantly packing up her books and heading to the door. 

“See you tomorrow,” Kristoff called after her.

“Yep,” she responded with a wave over her shoulder. 

Kristoff looked over at Hans who was watching Anna walk out the door, a perplexed expression on his face that matched how Kristoff felt. 

“I guess it, ah, it takes some people longer to get back into the rhythm of classes after being away for a bit,” Hans offered. 

“Yeah,” Kristoff said, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that something more was going on with Anna. 

{ ~ }

Hans rocked forward and back on his feet as he waited outside of Castle Hall for Anna for their walk to Kristoff’s. He got to see the two of them briefly in class the day before, but tonight would be the first Friday night since they were all back from break. And best of all, delta was throwing one of their massive parties tonight. It was crazy, Hans thought, just how much had changed between the three of them since that night they first went to a party at delta house. 

When Anna appeared in the doorway One of the first things he noticed was how she was dressed. She had sneakers on and her hair was up in a ponytail. Also her clothes were more casual than what was normal for her for a night out. Not that it mattered. She was still gorgeous, obviously. It was just different. 

“Hi, Anna,” he said with a smile as she approached him. 

“Hey,” she said quietly. She didn’t stop when she reached him, instead Anna simply turned onto the sidewalk and kept walking. 

“Did you have a good break?” he asked following after her. 

Anna nodded slightly but still didn’t look at him. “Yeah, it was alright. You?”

“Yeah, yeah it was good.” Hans felt a bit deflated. He’s not sure what he had expected. Anna to come bounding out of her dorm with a wide smile? To throw her arms around him and tell him that he had missed him? 

They walked in silence the rest of the way to Kristoff’s.

{ ~ } 

Kristoff chewed on the end of his pen as the three of them sat in his apartment working on their weekly assignment. His eyes were fixed on Anna who was sitting in her usual spot on the floor in front of the coffee table. She wasn’t talking much, only what was needed for them to complete the assignment. The concerns he had yesterday after class about something being wrong were only growing now. Hans seemed to be picking up on it too as Kristoff noticed him sneaking worried glances her way. 

There was a heavy feeling in the room. This wasn’t exactly how Kristoff pictured their reunion. He had imagined Anna eagerly asking them about how their breaks were and then giving them a play-by-play of hers. 

It wasn’t that she was acting particularly morose. In fact if it were anyone else he might not think anything was wrong at all. But knowing how bright and animated she usually was made this current still silence seem off. He hadn’t seen her smile once the whole evening. Kristoff also noticed that she was dressed more like how she would dress for class instead of for a night out. There was a part of him that wanted to ask her what was wrong, but he didn’t really know how to phrase it. Because ‘Hey, why aren’t you wearing heels and smiling?’ felt like an insanely sexist thing to ask. 

“Excuse me,” Anna said gently before standing and walking in the direction of the bathroom. 

Kristoff watched until the bathroom door closed behind her and then looked at Hans. “Is it me or is something off with Anna?” he asked quietly. 

“No, something is definitely off,” Hans said, matching his tone. “I noticed it on our walk over here.”

“Any idea what it could be?”

Hans shrugged and the two of them sat in helpless silence. If it were either of them that were upset, Anna would know exactly what to do. 

“When she comes back out, ask me about tonight,” Hans suggested. “Maybe talking about the party will cheer her up.”

“Good idea.” The bathroom door opening made Kristoff sit up straighter and clear his throat. “So, what are the plans for tonight?” he asked in a voice loud enough for Anna to hear. 

“Party over at delta house,” Hans responded, putting a smile on. 

“Oh,” Kristoff’s eyebrows went up. “That’s where we went the first time the three of us hung out.” 

“Yep, it’s only their second party of the semester.”

“That sounds like fu-,” The words caught in Kristoff’s throat as Anna entered the living room. She was trying to hide her face, but he could see as she wiped tears away from the corners of her eyes. Kristoff jumped up from the couch and was over to her in a moment. “Anna? Anna, what’s wrong?”

She blinked up at him and he could see her eyes were red as if she had been crying. He quickly glanced back at Han who was sitting at the edge of the couch, his hands clenched tight over his knees and concern etched on his face. 

“C’mere, sit,” Kristoff said, putting an arm around her and leading her. Anna sat down in the middle of the couch and Kristoff sat next to her, keeping a hand on her back. 

Hans placed a hand on her upper arm. “What’s going on, Anna? What’s the matter?” 

Anna groaned and rubbed her forehead. “It’s stupid.”

“If it’s upsetting you this much, then it’s not stupid,” Kristoff assured her. 

Anna took a deep, shaky breath. “My parents are getting divorced. They told us while we were home over break.”

“Oh, shit,” Hans said quietly. 

Kristoff rubbed his hand up and down her back. “I’m so sorry Anna.” 

“It’s ok. I’ll be ok. I’ve _been_ ok most of the time since they’ve told us. But then there are these moments where I think about it and I-,” her voice broke slightly and Anna brought her hand back up to her face. “Fuck, I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologize,” Kristoff told her. “It’s understandable that you’re upset. Did you want to talk about it?”

“No, no not really.” Anna twisted her hands together in her lap. “I know you guys were talking about the party tonight, but I’m not in a partying mood. When we’re done here with our work I’ll just head back to my dorm and you two can go to delta house.”

Hans and Kristoff exchanged a glance and then looked back at her. “We’re not going to go to the party without you, Anna,” Hans said. 

“I agree, there is no way we’re going without you,” Kristoff said firmly. “But, hey, just because we don’t _go_ out doesn’t mean we can’t _hang_ out. We can stay here and have a quiet night in.”

“Exactly. We’ll get a pizza, same as always,” Hans added. 

“And we can watch a movie. I don’t have any streaming services but I have some DVDs.” Kristoff motioned over the bottom shelf of his TV stand at where his meager collection lived. “Your pick, whichever one you want.”

Anna looked back and forth between Kristoff and Hans. “You sure?”

“Yes,” they both said in unison. 

A small smile slowly began to spread across her face. “That sounds really nice.”

{ ~ }

Anna sat on the floor in front of Kristoff’s TV stand going through his DVDs. They had finished up their assignment for the week and Kristoff was over in the kitchen on his phone ordering the pizza. 

“Does Kristoff actually have anything good or is it all just nerd central?” Hans asked, sitting down on the floor next to her. He gave her a tentative smile, as if checking to see if such joking was ok. Anna smiled back at him. It was sweet how the guys were willing to forgo the party for her sake. 

When Anna looked back at the DVDs, one in particular caught her eye. “Oh!” she said as she picked it up. “You have _The Princess Bride_.” 

“Is that one you like?” Kristoff asked, walking back into the living room. 

“I love it. When we were little I would sometimes sneak into Elsa’s room on nights where our parents were…” Anna trailed off and rubbed her thumbs across the cover. “Elsa would read the book to me on those nights. And we would watch the movie a lot together, too.”

Kristoff was standing right behind them then. He looked down at her with a warm smile. “Well, that’s what we’re watching then.”

“Good, because that’s the only decent one of the lot,” Hans said as he went to get up off the floor. 

Kristoff shot him a glare and then pressed a hand flat down on the top of his head, preventing Hans from standing. 

“Get-, stop it,” Hans tried with futility to get away, which just caused Kristoff to smirk. 

Anna laughed and Kristoff extended his other hand out in her direction. “Oh, why thank you,” she said in an overly formal voice as she took his hand and used it to help her stand up. “What a gentleman.” 

Kristoff released his hold on Hans then and allowed him to stand. 

“Lame,” Hans grumbled as he clearly tried to suppress a smile. 

“Well maybe next time don’t go insulting my movie collection.” 

“Well maybe next time get some better movies.”

Anna felt a warmth in her chest. It was nice to see the guys teasing each other again. She had missed that. 

{ ~ }

_“Who was this love of yours? Another prince like this one? Ugly, rich, and scabby?”_

_“No! A farm boy. Poor. Poor and perfect. With eyes like the sea after a storm.”_

They sat on the couch eating their pizza as the movie played. Hans hadn’t seen this movie in a couple of years, but it was a good one even if it wasn’t one of his favorites. It was a favorite of Anna's though and that’s what was important. It seemed to be putting her in a better mood. There was no belly aching laughter, but some small chuckles and smiles were coming out of her as they watched. 

Out of all the times the three of them had been together in Kristoff’s apartment, tonight was the first time they were all sitting on the couch at the same time. It made for a bit of a tight fit. Hans glanced over at them from the corner of his eyes. There was a soft glow across both of their faces with the TV being the only light on in the apartment. Kristoff was over at the other end leaning an elbow on the arm of the couch. Anna was sitting in the dead center of the couch, arms folded in her lap and feet up on the coffee table. 

There was a strange energy to, as if they were trying to leave as much space between each other on the couch as possible. Were they sitting like that because of him? It had to be, right? Because if Hans weren’t there then they would mostly definity _not_ be sitting like that. If Hans weren’t there they’d be all cuddled up, Anna tucked tight against Kristoff’s side with her head on his chest and his arm around her holding her close. 

Why though? It’s not like the two of them hooking up was some kind of secret. In fact, it was the one thing that _wasn’t_ a secret in this group. And it's not as if Hans hadn’t seen small bits of affection between the two of them before. Times where he had seen Kristoff’s hand on Anna's hip or lower back. Or Anna’s hand on Kristoff’s chest or forearm. Or them taking each other's hands and interlacing their fingers. 

They must be doing it in some attempt to not make him feel awkward. He _wouldn’t_ feel awkward though. The idea of them being together didn’t make him jealous. Maybe it should, and maybe if he were more normal of a person it would, but it didn’t. They were cute together. But how obvious what they were doing was, and how forced it felt, was infinitely more awkward than them cuddling. Heck, he’d take them making out on the couch next to him compared to this. 

He needed to leave. Not right that second, obviously. Leaving in the middle of the movie would be rude as fuck. But he’d leave as soon as it ended. 

Because if he left, then Anna would be free to go snuggle up against Kristoff. She was going through something rough right now. Anna had said she didn’t want to talk about it so Hans didn’t bring up his own family stuff, but he knew exactly how she was feeling. Hans also knew how nice it felt to be held by Kristoff. How comforting it was to rest his head against that broad chest and to have those strong arms around him and to feel the warmth that always seemed to radiate off of Kristoff. If Hans left then Anna could have that, and it would hopefully bring her some comfort. 

{ ~ }

Anna sat up as the credits for the movie began to roll. “It’s not that late yet. You guys want to watch another one?”

“Actually, um,” Hans said with some hesitation as he stood up from the couch. “I think I’m going to head out now.”

“Are you sure?” Anna asked, trying to hide her disappointment. 

“Yeah,” he said, pulling his shoes on. “I’ll let you two have the rest of the night together.” 

Anna knew she really shouldn’t be that surprised. She appreciated that Hans had been willing to stick around and watch the one movie for her sake, but this obviously wasn’t how he wanted to spend his Friday night. Delta always threw the best parties, and he was missing out on it because of her. 

They all said their goodbyes and Hans was soon gone. Once Hans closed the door behind him, Anna turned to look at Kristoff. 

“Hi,” he said.

“Hi,” she said back. Anna shifted closer to him on the couch and Kristoff lifted up his arm. She tucked herself in close next to him and rested her head against his chest. Anna hadn’t wanted Hans to leave, but it was nice to be able to do this now. Hans had once told her that seeing the two of them together didn’t bother him, but Anna thought it would still be rude to wave it in his face. 

“How are you doing?” Kristoff asked as he lowered his arm around her, giving her a small squeeze. 

“Better,” she admitted. “It’s still all there in my head and it still sucks, but being able to zone out at watch a movie helps to not think about it. I’ll probably do the same thing tomorrow night.”

“Sorry I can’t join you.”

“It’s ok, I know you have work.”

Kristoff’s opposite arm reached across his body and he took one of her hands in his. “I understand if you don’t want to talk about it. But I’m here if you do. You know that, right?”

“I do, yes.” Anna tilted her head to look up at him. “There is still a part of me that feels like it was my fault somehow, them getting divorced.”

“Why? How could it be your fault?”

“While I was growing up they would fight a lot. Well, not _fight_. Argue, I guess. No raised voices, just speaking with really tense and harsh voices.” Anna squeezed Kristoff’s hand. “And whenever I sensed that tension rising up between the two of them, I would find a way to deflect things. To draw their attention away from each other and onto me. I’d do something that I knew would make them laugh or smile. But once I went away to school I wasn’t around to do that anymore.”

Kristoff looked down at her with sympathy in his eyes and then gave her a kiss on the top of her head. “That doesn’t surprise me. You wanting to be the bright light in the room, wanting to make everyone else happy. You have a big heart and you care about people. But, Anna, their shit is _their_ shit. It’s never the kid’s fault when the parents split.”

Deep down Anna knew he was right. Elsa and Ryder had told her the same thing too. It was still a hard feeling to shake though. But Kristoff’s words still touched her. She craned her neck up to place a soft kiss to his mouth. “I missed you over break.” 

“I missed you, too,” Kristoff said, his nose lightly brushing against hers. 

“It’s ok if I sleep here tonight, right?”

“Of course, you always do.”

“But, like, just sleep?” It’s not that she was expecting him to say no or get annoyed or anything, but Anna thought it best to be up front with what was and was not going to happen that night. All she wanted to do was zone out on the couch some more and then crawl into bed. 

Kristoff brushed some hair back behind her ear and let his thumb caress her cheek. “You can sleep here whenever you want.”

{ ~ } 

Hans stood out on the sidewalk in front of delta house, his hands in his pockets and his brow furrowed and he looked up at the place. The party was still in full swing, noise and music emanating from within and people coming and going. It was the largest frat house at school and the place was completely packed. But there were only two people he actually wanted to spend any time with tonight, and they were back where he just came.

The flash of regret had hit the second Kristoff’s door closed behind him. He wondered how long into the night the two of them would have let him stay if he hadn’t left on his own. But, fuck, he couldn’t think that way. If he wanted to keep these things he had with Anna and Kristoff going then he couldn’t be inserting himself into the thing the two of them had together. It was a delicate balance he needed to strike, and in the end leaving when he did was the right move - both for him and for them. 

It wasn’t like the weekend was a total loss. He’d still see Anna tomorrow night and then Kristoff on Sunday. As for tonight though? He wasn’t going to find any enjoyment at this party. With a sigh Hans turned away from the house and began the walk back to campus. 

~

As he opened the door to the suite where he lived, Hans heard some mumbled cursing and shuffling. It was then that he saw Torres was over on the couch with a girl. She scrambled to grab her shirt up off the floor to cover her bare chest. 

“Shit.” Hans quickly brought a hand up to his face to block his view. “I didn’t see anything, promise.”

He heard a nervous laugh from the girl. “It’s, ah, it’s ok. Our fault for being on the couch.”

“Yeah, how about a sock on the door next time, Torres?” Hans said as he walked over to his room. 

“You’re never back this early,” his teammate responded. “What’s a matter, couldn’t get laid? Not like you.”

“I had a quickie in the bathroom over at the delta party then split,” Hans lied, forcing a casual tone into his voice. He gave them a wave over his shoulder before closing the door of his room behind him. “As you were.” 

Once in his room, Hans went straight to his desk and got out his baggie of gummy bear edibles. He quickly ate one and then went searching for his headphones. After finding them, he stripped off his clothes until he was in nothing besides his boxer-briefs and undershirt. He was about to crawl into bed when he looked back at the edibles. Fuck it, he thought, Kristoff took a handful once and was fine. Hans picked a second one out of the baggie and popped it in his mouth.


	30. Chapter 30

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back from break - Part 2

Anna was sitting on her bed and scrolling through her phone when there was a knock at her door. “It’s open!” she called out. 

It was Ryder. He walked over to the side of her bed and leaned his elbows against it. “You coming out tonight?”

“Nah, I really just want to veg out tonight. Stay right here in bed and binge something on Netflix. Besides,” Anna gestured vaguely at herself. She was wearing a pair of cotton shorts and an old tee shirt. They were comfy clothes she had changed into as soon as she had gotten back to her room from Kristoff’s earlier in the day. Not exactly going-out-on-a-Saturday-night attire. 

“Still feeling down?” he asked. 

“Yeah, kinda. Plus I don’t have the emotional energy to face Madison tonight.” 

Ryder’s eyes lit up. “Wait, _what_? Is there drama with Madison that I don’t know about?”

“Oh shit, I didn’t tell you?”

“ _No._ You didn’t tell me anything! Come on. Give. Me. The. Tea.” Ryder patted the bed with each word for emphasis. 

“Ok, so you know that guy Joe that she’s been seeing?”

“Yeeeeah...” he said slowly. 

“Last semester I kinda slept with him.” Anna cringed slightly as she said it. 

“ _Wait._ Is Madison’s Joe the same Joe as One-Minute-Joe?”

Anna snorted, remembering how Ryder had come up with that nickname after Anna had told him about the forgettable night. “Yep. But when Madison went to introduce us he looked at me like he had never seen me before in his life and was all ‘Oh hi nice to meet you’ and stuff. So I kinda panicked and pretended I didn’t know him either.”

“So Madison has no idea?”

“No.”

“Are you going to tell her?”

“How can I without making it seem like her boyfriend is a liar? Which he might not be, he might genuinely not remember me. And I just _know_ she’ll give me that judgy face because it was a one night stand and, ugh,” Anna groaned, “And I just want to sit here and not think about anything.”

Ryder gave her a sympathetic look. “You want me to chill with you tonight?”

“No, you go out and have fun. Thank you though.” 

“Ok. How about this? I’ll get out of here and let you have your quiet night alone. _But_ , tomorrow morning I come get you for waffles in the dining hall. And then we spend the whole rest of the day just vegging out until it’s time to go Elsa and Maren’s for family dinner.”

“That sounds amazing. And I’ll come out next weekend, I promise.”

Anna hopped down off the bed to walk him out and lock the door behind him. 

Before heading back to her bed, Anna stopped at her closet. She searched through a bit until she found what she was looking for - a dark, forest green flannel shirt. It was Kristoff’s, the one she had borrowed from him the morning after her drunk escapades at The Trading Post when her own shirt was too wet to wear home. She held it up to her face and sniffed. Still smelled like Kristoff. 

Pulling her tee shirt off and tossing it to the side, Anna slipped into the flannel shirt. It was so large on her that she was able to fold the unbuttoned front across her body as if it were a robe. 

Anna crawled back onto her bed and opened up the Netflix app on her phone, fully expecting to not move from that spot for the rest of the night. 

{ ~ } 

It had probably been a mistake to take the second edible the night before. Felt good at the time but Hans had ended up sleeping away most of the day today. But he made sure he was up and showered and dressed by the time his suitemates were heading out to an off campus party. He tagged along with them but didn’t talk to them much, his mind occupied with the events of the night before. 

The whole night at the party Hans nursed his beer as he kept his phone either in his hand or in his front pocket. He didn’t want to miss it when Anna texted him. It was Saturday night, so he was expecting to hear from her at some point. Hopefully she was feeling better compared to last night. 

A large group of people coming in through the front door of the house party caught his attention. He recognized a couple of them as friends of Anna’s, other freshmen that lived in the same dorm as her. He had met them the night of the delta party back at the beginning of the semester. Not that Hans remembered any of their names. Then he spotted Ryder with them. Hans craned his neck, searching for any sign of Anna. Nothing. If she wasn’t out with them, then where was she?

Hans unlocked his phone and sent her a text. 

_you out tonight?_

It didn’t take her long to respond. 

_no, not tonight_

Hans furrowed his brow as he looked down at the message. No? 

Without even saying goodbye to his suitemates, he put his cup down on a random table and was quickly heading for the side door of the house. 

{ ~ }

Four episodes in and Anna had decided that _Tidying Up with Marie Kondo_ was the thing that was going to change her life. She had always been terrible at keeping her things organized and she struggled to fit all of her things into the tiny space afforded by dorms rooms. But this show made the idea of cleaning seem so great. Spiritual even! 

She was going to do it. She was going to go through every item she owned to determine which ones did and did not _spark joy_. She was going to fold her clothes in that special way. She could even get started on it tonight. 

Anna looked down from her bed at her cluttered desk and overflowing drawers and piles of clothes on the floor. 

Tomorrow. _Tomorrow_ she was going to start on it. 

Her thoughts were interrupted by a text message from Hans. 

_you out tonight?_

Anna chewed on her lip as she looked down at her phone. She knew what he was _actually_ asking. ‘Are we having sex tonight?’ Which, no, that wasn't something she was really up for. 

Anna typed out a quick response which would give him the opportunity to find someone else to end his night with. 

_no, not tonight_

She then opened her Netflix app again and began to watch a new episode. 

Halfway into the episode, she was interrupted by her phone ringing. It was Hans. Why the heck was Hans calling her? 

Anna accepted the call and brought the phone up to her ear. “Hans?” 

“Come to the window,” she heard him say in a cheerful tone. 

“What?” she asked, confused. Part of her had expected this to be a butt dial and to only hear a bunch of background noise from whatever party he was at. 

“Come to the window,” he repeated. “The one at the end of the hall.” 

Anna hung up and stared down at her phone. Hans was _here_? Why? She had said _’no’_ when he had texted her before. Was she not clear? Or was she clear and he just didn’t care? 

An annoyance began to swell up inside of her. She had told him no and yet Hans was still showing up at her dorm trying to pester some sex out of her?

Anna jumped down from her bed and slipped on her slippers. “Fuck,” she muttered to herself as she took a look in the mirror. Anna took her hair out of the bun that it was in and shook it out. It was kinda greasy since she hadn’t washed it that day. And she wasn’t wearing any makeup. Whatever. 

She took off Kristoff’s flannel shirt, stuffing it back into the closet, and pulled on a tee shirt before heading out of her room. What _lines_ was Hans about to use on her to try to get into her pants, she wondered. 

{ ~ }

When Hans got to the bottom of the window outside of Castle Hall he took his phone back out and called Anna. 

“Hans?” she answered, sounding a bit confused. 

“Come to the window.”

“What?”

“Come to the window. The one at the end of the hall.”

He watched the window as he waited for her. After a couple of minutes Anna opened it and stuck her head out. Hans smiled up at her but she didn’t smile back. Once her head disappeared back inside Hans began to climb up. 

“I didn’t ask you to come here tonight,” Anna said matter-of-factly as Hans stepped through the window. 

“I know, I just-,”

“Let’s not talk in the hall,” she cut him off and then began to walk back up the hallway towards her room. 

Hans followed her, feeling a bit of tension. 

After closing her door behind them, Anna crossed her arms and stalked off into the middle of her room. “I didn’t ask you to come here tonight,” she repeated. 

“I know,” he said gently. “I thought you might want some company though.” Hans gave her a soft smile but Anna’s face only hardened in response. 

“I didn’t go out tonight because I wasn’t in the mood for going out. And, honestly, I’m not in the mood to have sex tonight either, so,” Anna looked down at her feet and dismissively waved her hand. “So, I’m sorry you came all this way and wasted your time.”

Hans walked towards her. “I’m not here looking for sex,” he assured her. 

“Right,” she said sarcastically, “You came all the way here and climbed through a second floor window after midnight to get into my room to _not_ have sex with me.”

Hans felt his stomach drop. There was no hint of teasing in her voice. Anna was angry at him, at the fact that he was standing there in her room. She was assuming the only possible reason he would want to be there was for sex. Hans knew he had cultivated a reputation, but he thought Anna saw through all of that. She was his friend and he thought she knew that he didn’t use that word lightly. She was more than just some random lay to him. 

But maybe she was assuming that sex was all he wanted from her because that was all she’d ever want from him in a moment like this. Hans had wanted to comfort her, but perhaps Anna didn’t want his comfort. Kristoff was the person she wanted that from. 

Some embarrassment began to creep in. What the fuck was he doing? How invasive to just show up late at night uninvited. 

“That’s not why I came here tonight,” he said, trying to not sound too defensive. “I came here as your friend, to check on you. When you told me you didn’t go out tonight I assumed that you were still upset like you were last night.” Hans looked away. “But you’re right. I should have asked before just showing up like this. I’m sorry. I’ll, um, I’ll go.”

“Wait,” Anna said quietly as he was about to step away. She uncrossed her arm and looked at him suspiciously. “Is that really why you came?”

“Yes. I understand what you’re going through. My parents are divorced too.” Her eyebrows went up in surprise and Hans continued on. “I know, I didn’t mention it last night. But that was because you said you didn’t want to talk about it and I didn’t want to make your thing all about me. But I’ve been there. And I know you’re probably blaming yourself right now. It’s normal to feel that way. It’s not true, at all. But it’s a normal thing to feel.” 

Anna didn’t say anything in response, she just stared at him for a moment before tears began to form in the corners of her eyes and the hard mask of her face cracked. She stepped forward, wrapping her arms around his waist and burying her face into the front of his shirt. 

“Anna,” he whispered against her hair as he petted the back of her head. Hans could hear her softly crying and he held her tighter. “It’s ok, Anna. It’s going to be ok.”

{ ~ }

They moved up onto her bed to talk. Sitting side by side and leaning their backs against the wall, Anna began to tell Hans everything. About the tension that would frequently arise between her parents over the years and how she always felt responsible to fix it. 

“They were talking about it in such a clinical way,” she said, explaining the dinner where her parents had dropped the news. “Like they were making plans for something mundane like remodeling the kitchen instead of fucking _divorce_. And then the first thing they jump to after that was the time table for selling the townhouse. And they were all ‘Oh but don’t worry, we’re not selling the house in Southampton.’ As if our biggest concern in that moment was going to be about _real estate_.” 

“Your family has a house in Southampton?”

Anna rolled her eyes. “Focus please.”

“Right. Sorry.” He gave her a half smile back. “But yeah, that’s a cold way to tell you. Like they planned it all out and then let you know as an afterthought.”

“ _Exactly_. Yes, that’s exactly what it was like.” Anna rested her head back against the wall. “How did your parents tell you?”

“Welllll,” Hans scrunched his face up. “They didn’t really sit us down and tell us. We just came home from school one day and my mom was throwing all my dad’s clothes and shit out the windows.” 

Anna’s eyes went wide. “Wooow.”

Hans let out a small laugh. “Yeah. My mom can be a bit dramatic.” 

“So that’s where you get it, huh?” Anna nudged his shoulder with her own.

Hans returned the gesture. “Oh, ha ha ha,” he said in a dry tone. 

“What happened that made her do that?”

“Never really found out what the final straw was. Maybe she caught him with one of his girlfriends. Again. Or it was one of the million other things they would always yell at each other about. They yelled a lot. They basically only ever communicated via yelling.” 

Anna felt bad at hearing that. She dealt with the unsettling tension that always existed between her parents, but at least she never had to deal with constant yelling. “How old were you when it happened?” she asked. 

“Ten. And just like you I thought it was all my fault. My parents were banging out kid after kid after kid. But then they have me and that’s when they stop? Like, what was so bad about me that I was the one that made them go, ok no more? Obviously I was wrong, but like I said it’s normal to feel that stuff when your parents get divorced.” 

“Did any of your brothers think it was their fault?”

“No idea. We never talked about it.”

“Are you not close with them?” Hans never talked about his brothers, but with so many of them Anna had just assumed he was close with at least _some_ of them. 

“No.” Hans winced slightly. “The older ones barely ever acknowledge my existence. Some of them were already teenagers by the time I was born and were out of the house by the time the divorce happened. The ones that were closer in age to me? Well, I was always the smallest so they saw me more as a punching bag than as someone to bond with or whatever.”

“So you were all alone with it,” Anna noted with some sadness. She wasn’t sure how she’d be getting through all this without Elsa. 

“Kinda. I mean I had Sitron.” Hans rubbed his forehead. “Which sounds super pathetic when I actually say it out loud.” 

“I don’t think it’s pathetic. It’s cute. You and your kitty.” She gave him a smile. 

“He’s not really a _kitty_ ,” Hans laughed. “He’s a street cat. Lives in the woods that line the back of our property. I let him in my room through the window, but technically he’s not supposed to be in the house.”

“Oh, I had assumed he was a family pet.”

“No, we were never allowed to have pets growing up. My dad always hated animals because he’s a heartless piece of shit. My mom doesn’t hate animals but hates the idea of pet hair on the furniture and stuff like that.”

Anna could sense a bit of bite in his words. “Do you like your parents?” she asked him. 

“My dad? No.” Anna could see a hardness in his eyes as he spoke. “That is a big, fat, firm _no_. He is the worst. Literally. I don’t just not like him, I fucking hate him.”

“And your mom?”

“I-I don’t know.” Hans looked down into his lap and picked at his fingernails. Anna watched his profile as his jaw tensed and his brow furrowed. The words he had to say about his dad flowed out easy. Talking about his mom though seemed to spark some internal conflict. 

“There have for sure been times when I hated her,” Hans said eventually. “Times when she wasn’t there for me when I really needed her to be. But there have also been nice times. Like when I was little sometimes my mom would take me out and we would spend the whole afternoon together doing something just the two of us.” Hans rubbed his hands across the tops of his knees and let his head fall back against the wall. “And now, sometimes it feels like she can’t stand the sight of me. But also there are little moments that, I,” he sighed, “I don’t know.” 

“There are little moments that you desperately latch onto because you think they’re a sign that things could be better. That your relationship with them could be better.”

Hans turned his head to look at her. “Exactly. That’s exactly what it is.”

Anna thought about coming home to find her parents in the kitchen together, about the hope she had at the idea of a nice family dinner together. If such a moment was in front of her again would she be able to see through it or would she once again hope that it was a sign of something more? 

“What about you?” he asked. “Do you like your parents?”

“I want to. Sometimes I feel like I don’t even know them enough to like them or hate them.” Anna played with the hem of her shirt as she spoke. “They were always so busy with work and social functions. And they were always putting us in different extracurricular activities to keep us busy too. Even when we went on family vacations, we’d never spend time together. We’d go to these fancy resorts that had those kids club things that our parents would drop us off at while they went off and did their own thing.” She twisted her hands together. “I feel like a spoiled brat complaining about that shit though.” 

“Wanting parents who care about you and who want to spend time with you isn’t being spoiled.”

There was a warmth in Hans’s voice and as Anna looked up at him she could see the same warmth in his eyes. There was understanding in his eyes too. When it came to this stuff, he understood her. 

“Thank you for coming here tonight. I thought sitting by myself watching stuff on my phone was what was going to make me feel better, but this has been really nice. In fact I, uh,” Anna hesitated. Maybe it was stupid to ask. Hans never stayed the night, like it was some rule of his or something. But she swallowed and pressed on. “I know you normally don’t like to sleep over. But I’m starting to feel like I really don’t want to be alone tonight and-,” 

“I’ll stay,” he said quickly. 

“Y-, you will?” Anna asked, surprised at how easily he agreed. 

“Yeah.” He nodded. “I told you, I’m here in friend-mode tonight.”

Anna hooked her arm in his and leaned her head down against his shoulder. “Thank you.”

“Of course, Anna Bell,” he said, reaching a hand across his body to clasp over one of her. “What are friends for?”

{ ~ }

Later that night, after they turned out the lights and got under the covers, Hans held her close. He listened as her breathing slowly evened out and she fell asleep. 

He thought about the way in which she had asked him to stay. _’I really don’t want to be alone tonight.’_ Not that she wanted _him_ there, but that she wanted _someone_ there. Hans knew deep down that Kristoff would be Anna’s first choice when it came to someone holding her as she fell asleep. But Kristoff wasn’t available tonight. So, Hans was willing to be the second best option if it meant Anna got the comfort she needed. 

The rule about not sleeping over, it was always meant to be a physical barrier. A line in the sand. Something he could hold to as a reminder to not fall in love. But he had enough of a reminder right there in his arms. Anna’s tears and Anna’s pain. They came from a divorce. From a love that two people once thought would be forever, so much so that they said vows proclaiming it. But then it fell apart as all love does, creating pain not only for themselves but for their children. Collateral damage from someone else’s delusions about love.

Hans stroked Anna’s long red hair. As he did so, he thought of soft brown hair that would always fall in curls around her shoulders. The tears in Vanessa’s eyes on that horrible afternoon. She hadn’t allowed Hans to hold her the way he was holding Anna now. Instead Vanessa had cursed him and shoved him away as she sobbed. 

Closing his eyes Hans forced himself to remember how that day felt. How it felt like his world was ending. The helpless, gut churning pain. That was all long ago, and Hans had built himself back up from that terrible low, but it was important that he never forgot that pain. Because that’s how he was going to protect himself from ever feeling it again. 

Him and Anna were friends. He was being her friend tonight. Nothing more. What they had would never, could never, be more than that. 

{ ~ }

As Anna slowly woke, she registered the presence of a warm body in her bed. She opened her eyes to find Hans still asleep next to her. A small smile spread across her face as memories from the night before flooded back. They were laying on their sides facing each other and Hans had an arm slung over her waist. Anna watched his face as he slept, still and calm as the morning light peeking in from the edges of her window shade illuminated his features. Dark red eyelashes resting against pale skin. Dustings of freckles across his cheeks and nose. 

Over the past week plus everyone had been assuring her that her parents’ divorce wasn’t her fault, but Hans was the only one who told her that she was normal for feeling that way. That even though it wasn’t actually her fault, her _feeling_ like it was was still normal. That he had felt the same way once to but that it was possible to get past that feeling. 

A bit of guilt crept in as she thought about how cold she had been with him when he first showed up last night. How she had jumped to conclusions about his motives. They were friends. They would hang out and they would hook up. There was never really anything deeper. She assumed Hans had zero interest in anything deeper. But last night he had been there for her with zero expectations of what he’d get in return. He hadn’t even tried to kiss her. And Hans had opened up and shared personal things about his life in a way he had never done with her before. 

Hans stirred slightly. His eyes didn’t open but the arm that was around her tightened, pulling their bodies closer together. Anna’s nose ended up right next to his neck. She inhaled deep, capturing his scent. Being this close also meant she could sense some morning wood up against her thigh. Only at half mast from what she could feel, but still. 

Anna chewed on her bottom lip as an idea came to her. Slowly and gently and shifted her leg so that it pressed against him a bit more firmly.

A pleasant hum came from somewhere deep inside him and Hans mumbled out a few things she couldn’t really understand. “Mmmm ris s’ngood.” And then after another hum came something that was perfectly clear. “ _Anna._ ” 

She felt something catch in her chest. He was thinking about _her_. Anna brought a hand up to his side and began to softly rub it up and down his sides, feeling the shape of his body through the thin material of his undershirt. 

Hans slowly blinked his eyes open. Initially there was a hint of confusion in his expression as his eyes focused on her, but it faded away into recognition and a smile. “Hey, morning,” he said, his voice thick with sleep.

“Hey,” she responded. 

Hans rubbed some sleep out of his eyes and Anna could feel him shift his hips away from her. 

“You know,” Anna said as she moved her hand to his chest. “One advantage of sleeping over is that now you can just walk out the front door. No need to climb back out the window.”

Hans chuckled and she could feel the light rumble through his body. “I kinda like climbing through the window. Makes it feel more adventurous.”

His green eyes sparkled as he looked at her. Anna thought about kissing him. About how easy it would be to move her face just a couple of inches and press their mouths together. She wondered if he was going to kiss her, but he didn’t. So, she didn’t either. Afraid to disrupt the delicate nature of this only-as-a-friend sleepover. 

They laid there for a little while longer, letting themselves slowly wake up, before Hans got dressed and they said their goodbyes. 

{ ~ }

Ryder headed down the stairs from the third floor of Castle Hall to the second floor, thoughts of waffles dancing in his mind. He took the last two steps in one leap and was about to jog up the hall when a familiar face stopped him in his tracks. 

It was Hans walking into the stairwell from the second floor. Hans also stopped and for a moment he looked worried, like he just got caught doing something he wasn’t supposed to be doing. But then his face smoothed out into a smile. 

“Hey, Nattura,” Hans said casually. 

“Hey, Westergaard,” Ryder responded. He quickly looked Hans up and down. Those clothes were almost definitely from the night before. “Late night?”

“Something like that,” he said with a chuckle before walking past him and heading down the stairs. “See ya around.”

“Yeah, see ya.” Ryder watched him until he disappeared out of sight and then looked back up the hallway. He hadn’t seen which room Hans had walked out of. Ryder long ago learned of Hans’s reputation from some of the other guys on the lacrosse team. Could get anyone he wanted; in bed with a different guy or girl every night. Conceivably Hans could have been coming out of any of the rooms on this floor, not necessarily Anna’s. 

Ryder walked down to her door and knocked.

“Hey,” Anna said cheerfully as she opened the door. “Give me one second. I’m almost ready and then we can head over to the dining hall.”

“How was your quiet night alone?” Ryder asked. 

“It was good,” she said as she looked in the mirror, working her hair up into a bun. “Just what I needed.”

Hans must have spent the night in one of the other rooms on the floor then. Because what reason would Anna have to hide something like that from him? 

{ ~ }

It was late on Sunday afternoon and Hans was laying in Kristoff’s bed, his hand tracing lazy patterns across the other man’s skin. He looked over at Kristoff who was staring up at the ceiling, his face still and pensive. Hans reached up and tapped him lightly on the tip of his nose. “Whatcha thinking about?” 

Kristoff turned to look at him. “About Friday night. Anna. How upset she was.”

“Was she still upset when she left here yesterday morning?” Hans asked, knowing he had to pretend that last night didn’t happen. 

“She seemed better? I think?” Kristoff looked unsure. “I wish there was something more we could do to cheer her up.”

“There is that SpringFest thing all this week,” Hans offered. “Maybe we try to talk her into going with us one night. She’d probably really like that.”

“SpringFest?” Kristoff asked with a quizzical look. 

Hans snorted, amused by how little Kristoff always seemed to know about the school social scene. “Do you actually go here,” he teased, “or do you just hang around campus to pick up teenagers?”

Kristoff narrowed his eyes and then his hands shot up and began tickling Hans in his ribs. 

“Ah! Stop!” Hans yelped between laughs and tried to squirm away. 

Kristoff shifted some of his weight onto Hans to keep him in place. “You’re way more ticklish than I thought you would be.” 

“Ple-, ah!” His whole body jerked and his sides and face began to hurt from laughing. “Kris! Please!”

Kristoff’s hands stilled and splayed out flat along his sides. Hans finally stopped laughing and was able to start catching his breath. Warm brown eyes smiled down at him and Kristoff pressed a light kiss to his mouth.

“Ok, tell me about this SpringFest thing.” 

“Right.” Hans took another deep breath and regrouped his thoughts. “They do it all week long, in the evenings out on the quad. It’s nothing big or fancy. Different games and booths and food and stuff. And, um,” Hans did his best to think back to last year. “They have a stage where bands play, student bands. Just a bunch of random stuff like that. It’s honestly kind of rinky-dink, but it can be fun. Oh, and once it gets dark they do fireworks.”

“That sounds,” Kristoff blinked, “Wow, that sounds perfect. Anna would love that.” 

“We need a plan for how we ask her, though.” 

“Why?”

“Would you prefer the truth? ‘Oh, hey, we were laying in bed together after giving each other blowjobs when we came up with this _great_ idea...’”

“Ok, ok,” Kristoff said, pitching the bridge of his nose. “Point taken. So what do we do?” 

“We’ll just text her. You start off and you can pretend like you came up with the idea all on your own. And then I’ll jump in and be all ‘oh my god, Kristoff that’s such a great idea. You’re so smart and thoughtful and handsome and you have such a big-,” 

“ _God._ ” Kristoff gave him a light shove as he got up from the bed and went to retrieve their phones from their discarded pants. 

Hans propped himself up on an elbow to admire a fully naked Kristoff walking back to the bed with their phones. “No, you’re right. I should leave out that last part.”

“You know you can be very annoying?” Kristoff said with a smile as he sat back down on the bed. “Remind me again why I hang out with you?”

“Mmm, gladly,” Hans said in a feathery tone as he snaked an arm around Kristoff’s waist and kissed at his neck. 

“Ah, ah, ah,” Kristoff said firmly as he shoved Hans’s phone at him. “Text first.” 

{ ~ }

Anna and Ryder were just passing by The Trading Post on their walk over to Elsa and Maren’s when her phone started going. 

(Kristoff): _saw that springfest is happening this week_  
(Kristoff): _the three of us should go one night_

(Hans): _ooo good idea_  
(Hans): _im free any day_  
(Hans): _anna, you in?_

“What day were we all going to SpringFest?” she asked Ryder.

“Wednesday,” he said. “You’re still coming right?” 

“Yeah,” Anna held up her phone. “Just want to make sure I pick a different day to go with Kristoff and Hans.” 

“Ah,” Ryder said quietly. 

(Anna): _how about tuesday?_

(Kristoff): _that works for me_

(Hans): _perfect!_


	31. Chapter 31

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anna, Hans, and Kristoff go to SpringFest.

It had taken a while for Anna to figure out the exact right thing to wear for SpringFest tonight. She had to find the right balance between looking good but also not looking too dressed up. It was going to be night-time but it wasn’t a night _out_. A dress and strappy heels wouldn’t exactly be practical for walking around in the grass of the quad. Instead she chose a pair of distressed black jeans and black wedge sneakers. She paired it with a crop top (to still look cute) and a long cardigan (since they’d be out past dark to watch the fireworks).

Anna was finishing up her makeup when her phone went off. 

(Kristoff): _we’re here, want us to come up?_

She looked around her room and all the discarded outfits that didn’t make the cut for tonight. 

(Anna): _no, don’t come up_  
(Anna): _i’ll be right down_

She gave herself a final once over in the mirror, grabbed her purse, and hurried out of her room. As Anna exited the front door of Castle Hall, she saw Kristoff and Hans standing out on the sidewalk talking to each other. When they noticed her they both turned to face her fully, both smiling at her as she approached. 

Anna felt a flutter low in her belly as she walked up to them. It was funny how they could look so different and yet both be so handsome. Kristoff, all tall and broad with his soft hair and warm eyes. Hans, all trim and fit with his sharp features and bright smile. 

“Hey guys,” she said as she reached them. “Sorry to keep you waiting.”

“It’s fine,” Hans said. 

“Yeah, we weren’t waiting long,” Kristoff added. 

Anna wanted to give them each a hug, but didn’t want to pick which one to hug first. So, in a split second decision, she decided to try to hug both of them at the same time. Her limited reach resulted in Kristoff and Hans getting somewhat awkwardly squooshed together. They didn’t seem to mind though, each hugging her back. 

They began to walk over to the quad where SpringFest was being held. Once in sight, Anna could see that it was filled with students and activity. On one end a stage was set up with a big banner across the top that said ‘SPRINGFEST’ and there was space left in front for people to gather. There was already a band playing and people dancing and enjoying the music. At the other end of the quad was a row of food trucks lined up along a wide walkway. In between on the grass were rows of booths and tables of all kinds. 

“Eat first?” Kristoff suggested as they got closer. 

“Yes,” Hans said emphatically, “I had practice this afternoon and I’m _starving_.” 

They picked a food truck called On A Stick that had all kinds of food that were, well, on a stick. It seemed the best option as it would allow them to easily walk around while eating. Anna went for the deep fried egg roll and the chocolate covered cheesecake. Kristoff and Hans each got the pork chop and the fried chicken, but Hans also got two corn dogs. Anna and Kristoff both chuckled as they watched Hans try to hold all the sticks in his two hands. 

As they began to walk and eat, Anna glanced back and forth between the two of them. “I just wanted to say, I know what you guys are doing.” 

Kristoff’s eyes went wide and he swallowed down a big bite of the pork chop on a stick that he already had in his mouth. “Wh-, what?” 

“I know what tonight is about,” she clarified. “I know it’s you two wanting to cheer me up. So, thank you. You guys are really good friends.” 

Kristoff’s face smoothed out into a smile. “Of course.”

“Yeah, we want to see you happy,” Hans said, giving her a smile as well. 

Anna felt that same flutter low in her belly. The three of them continued to eat as they walked in a wide loop around the quad. 

“Kinda crazy when you think about it,” Anna said after some time, “Out of the three of us, none of our parents stayed together.”

“Not really _that_ crazy,” Hans said crisply. “Marriage and monogamy are antiquated concepts doomed to fail.” 

Anna was a bit surprised to hear him say that. She knew that, just like her, he had a casual attitude about sex and wasn’t currently looking to get into a relationship. But she figured his reasons were the same as hers, that it was college and they were young and now was the time to just have fun. One day though, some time in the future, Anna always imagined that she would find ‘true love’ and ‘the one’ and get married. Apparently Hans didn’t think that way. But before she could ask him anything further on it, Kristoff cut in with his own question. 

“Your parents are split too?”

“Yep. They divorced when I was ten.” 

“Huh, that’s kinda surprising.”

“Why, because I seem so well adjusted?” Hans asked sarcastically before taking a big bite of his corn dog. 

“No. It’s just,” Kristoff gave a small shrug, “You’d think a couple that had thirteen kids would be super into each other.” 

Hans stopped walking and began to cough and choke on what he was eating. Anna had to bring a hand up to her own mouth to try to hold in a laugh. 

“What?” Kristoff asked innocently. 

Finally swallowing down the food in his mouth, Hans shot Kristoff a glare. “The _fuck?_ ” 

“What?” he asked more emphatically. 

Between Kristoff’s bewilderment and Hans’s horror, Anna could no longer hold in her laughter. 

“ _What?_ What do you mean _what_?” Hans sputtered. “You just made a joke about my parents having a lot of sex. I’m scarred, I’m scarred for the rest of my life.” 

“Oh.” Kristoff began to blush. “I, uh, I didn’t really mean it that way.”

Anna’s sides were starting to hurt and she couldn’t remember the last time she laughed this hard. “What other way could you have meant it?” 

“I don’t know! But I didn’t think you’d take it like that!”

“Kristoff, how could you not-, _god_ ,” Hans let out an exasperated sigh. “You’re supposed to be the brains of this group.” 

“What? No.” Anna nudged Hans with her elbow. “ _I’m_ the brains.”

Hans rolled his eyes. “Ok, fine. But then what is he?”

“The muscle, obviously.” Anna gave Kristoff’s bicep a pinch and he smiled down at her. 

“Yeah, that makes sense,” Hans conceded. 

“And what are you?” Kristoff asked him. 

Hans took another bite of his corn dog. “Uhhh, duh, I’m the looks.” He smiled wide but there was a bunch of food stuck in his teeth which sent Anna into another fit of laughter. 

{ ~ }

After finishing their food, the three of them headed over to the rows of booths that were set up along the quad. At the end of the first row there was a table where you could show your student ID to get three free game tokens. Once they had their tokens, next was choosing what game to play. There was a basketball game. The game where you throw a ball and try to knock over a pyramid of bottles. That thing where you hit a lever with a giant mallet and it makes the bell ding. 

“Let’s do the water gun game,” Anna said. “We need to do something that isn’t just brute force strength or else I’ll never have a shot at beating you two.”

The three of them lined up in front of the booth, Anna in the middle. The game operator explained the basics. Once the round starts, pull the trigger on your water gun and aim at your target. The water level in your column then rises and whoever reaches the top first wins. 

Hans picked up his water gun and gave them a grin. “You two ready to lose?” 

“You ready to eat my dust?” Anna retorted. 

“It's water, not dust,” Kristoff pointed out. 

“Whatever,” she waved her hand dismissively. “You’re both going to eat it.” 

There was a buzzer that indicated the start of the round and the three of them each raised their water guns, taking aim at their targets. 

“Go, go, go!” Anna shouted, as if yelling would make the water in her column rise faster. 

A bell dinged and Kristoff looked up to see the lights above his column flashing. He smiled with some pride. 

“Winner,” the game operator said as he pointed at Kristoff. “Pick your prize.”

“Which one?” Kristoff asked Anna as he gestured up as the selection of stuffed animals that hung around the game booth. 

She looked at him confused. “Why are you asking _me_?”

“Because I’m going to give it to you.” He had thought that would be the obvious thing to do, but now he was doubting himself. “Like a, you know, gentleman?”

“I don’t need yours,” Anna straightened up and lifted her chin. “I’m perfectly capable of winning my own.”

“I have to agree with Anna here, Kristoff,” Hans said with a haughty tone and smirk on his face. “But that’s because I’m like a, you know, feminist?”

Kristoff gave him the finger and then turned his attention back towards the game booth. He scanned the wide selection of stuffed animals before pointing at a tan colored bear. “I’ll take that one, I guess.” 

“Awww, that’s a good choice,” Anna said as the game operator handed it to him. 

“Yeah, a teddy bear. It’s a classic.” 

“We’re going again, right?” Hans asked.

“Absolutely,” Anna said, “And _I’m_ winning this time.” 

They each put their second game token down. Anna did a little excited wiggle as they were waiting for the round to start. It drew Kristoff’s attention to her rear end, so when the buzzer went off at the start of the new round he wasn’t ready. 

“Shit,” he mumbled as he pulled the trigger on the water gun and tried to regroup, but by that point he was already way behind. 

When the bell dinged to indicate a winner, the lights above Hans’s column were flashing. “Yeah,” he pumped his fist in excitement. “Anna, you pick a prize.” 

“What?” she whipped her head in his direction. “No! I just said I’ll win my own. You agreed with me!” 

“Oh, I’m keeping it for myself,” Hans said firmly. “I just don’t care which one I get, they’re all stupid looking.” 

Kristoff snorted. “Anna, don’t you know? Hans is way too cool to pick out a stuffed animal.” 

Anna rolled her eyes and looked around at the selection before pointing to a stuffed bison. “That one. It’s fitting.” 

“Fitting?” Hans asked, sounding slightly offended. “How is _that_ fitting?”

The game operator handed Anna the stuffed bison and then she held it out to Hans. “Because you’re stubborn.”

Kristoff began to laugh and Hans pouted as he snatched it away. 

“Ok,” Anna clapped her hands and rubbed them together. “One more game. This is it. I’m ready to go. I was _born_ ready!”

“Calm down,” Kristoff mumbled, but he couldn’t help but smile at her enthusiasm. 

They each put down their third and final game token and the round started up. But this time when the bell sounded at the end, the lights were flashing over Anna’s column. 

“Yes! I win!” Anna threw her arms in the air and jumped up and down. “In _your_ face,” she pointed at Hans dramatically before spinning and pointing at Kristoff, “and in _your_ face. In both your faces.”

“We each already won,” Hans noted. “So, not sure how _in our faces_ it really is.”

“No, it's in your faces. You two just got _dominated_.” Anna dropped her voice down low on the last word and flexed her muscles. 

“Pick your prize,” the game operator said, sounding like he was ready to be done with the three of them. 

“The sea turtle!” She quickly exclaimed, pointing at where it was hanging. 

“Sounds like you had your eye on him for a while.” 

“ _Yes,_ ” she said as the game operator handed it to her. “Look at him. He’s so cute with his little smile and his cute little flipper feet.” 

The three of them stepped away from the game booth to let others play and began to walk. 

“Oh,” Anna stopped and pulled out her phone. “We should take a selfie. The three of us and our three little guys.” 

Him and Hans gathered around her as Anna held her sea turtle in one hand and the phone in the other. Kristoff tried squatting down as best as possible, but with all their height differences and Anna’s limited reach it wasn’t really working. 

“Let me try,” Kristoff said and Anna handed her phone over to him. He held it up and did his best to get all three of them in frame, but it was still a struggle. 

Anna frowned. “I look like I’m two feet tall when you hold it like that.”

“Oh, just give it to me,” Hans said as he snatched the phone from Kristoff and moved so he was standing in the middle. “Anna, up on your toes.” She did as she was told, pressing up and putting her hand on Hans’s shoulder for balance. “And you. Down.” Kristoff felt Hans wrap a hand around the inside of his upper arm and tug. 

Kristoff complied as best as possible, hunching down and bringing his bear up under his chin to get it in frame. He smiled into the camera as the picture was snapped, trying not to think about how easily he could smell Hans in this position or how close their faces were. 

“Perfect,” Anna said as she smiled down at her phone. “I’ll send it to both of you in the group text.”

Kristoff unlocked his phone and opened up the message once it came through from Anna. There were plenty of other pictures that had gone back and forth in their group text, but they were always of either one or two of them. This, he realized, was the first picture they had of all three of them together. 

{ ~ }

After walking through all of the booths, the three of them decided it was time to check out the stage area where student bands had been playing all night. Currently there was an all girl rock band up on stage. Their music was pretty good, Hans thought. Him, Anna, and Kristoff stood near the back of the wide open area that had been set aside in front of the stage. It was currently filled with students jumping around and dancing to the music. Kristoff was on one side of him, standing completely still, while Anna was on the other, bouncing and bobbing her head to the music. 

“Anna!” a voice called out and Hans turned to see that girl with the super curly hair that Anna had made friends with the night they all went to The Trading Post walking over to them.

“Merida!” Anna exclaimed in return and wrapped the girl up into a big hug. “Oh my god, I haven’t seen you since before break. How _are_ you?” 

“I’m great, you?”

“Super great. Who are you here with?”

“Them,” Merida pointed up at the stage. “I’m friends with all the girls in this band. They’re amazing right?”

“They are!” Anna looked back at the two of them. “Oh, Merida, these are my friends, Kristoff and Hans.” 

Merida smiled knowingly. “Yes, we’ve already met.” 

“You have?”

“You weren’t fully upright at the time,” Hans teased, “But yeah.” 

“Oh, right.” Anna scrunched up her nose and nipped at her bottom lip. 

“It’s nice to properly meet you though.” Kristoff said as he held out his hand and Hans did the same. 

“You, too.” Merida said as she shook each of their hands. She then hooked her arm around Anna’s. “You boys don’t mind if I steal your girl away for some dancing, do you?” 

_Your girl._

“Nope not at all,” Hans said.

“Here,” Kristoff held out a hand, “I’ll hold your sea turtle.” 

“Thanks guys, I’ll be back.” Anna handed over her stuffed animal to Kristoff and her and Merida hurried out into the crowd. 

Hans watched as the two of them smiled and danced around. Merida was singing along, clearly already knowing all of the words, and Anna was doing her best to catch the words once the chorus came back around. 

“This was a really great idea,” Kristoff said to him after a while. “She seems to be having a lot of fun. Plus we each won something.”

“Yeah. These things are cheap as shit, though,” Hans looked down at his stuffed animal. “My buffalo already lost an eye.” 

“It’s a bison, actually.” 

Hans rolled his eyes. “Oh whatever, it’s a buffalo.” 

“Anna was right,” Kristoff said pointing at him. “Stubborn.” 

The two of them laughed and Hans gave Kristoff a light bump with his shoulder, mindful as always to not allow any physical contact between them to seem too familiar. 

As the song ended everyone in the crowd cheered. The lead singer held her arms out to her sides, gesturing to her bandmates and they each did a little bow. She stepped back up to the mic and waved to the crowd. “We are Sapphic Connection and you have been amazing! Thank you and good night!” 

As the band left the stage, Hans could see Anna and Merida hugging and saying goodbye to each other. Merida headed off in the direction of the stage while Anna began to walk back to them. 

Out onto the stage came the next act - a girl in a flowy, bohemian style dress and a guy with a man bun and an acoustic guitar. Their music was going to be different from the previous band’s, Hans figured. Slow and folksy love songs most likely. 

Hans turned to Kristoff and gave him a stern look. “You need to ask Anna to dance.” 

“What?” Kristoff asked, his eyebrows raised in surprise. “I, no, I can’t. I don't know how to dance, I have no rhythm.”

“I have no doubt that that’s true, but this is going to be slow dancing and you don’t need rhythm for that. You just stand there and sway back and forth.”

Looking around at the crowd, Kristoff grimaced and scratched at the back of his neck. “I-I don’t know.”

Hans sucked in an aggregated breath. “Kristoff, I swear to god, if you don’t ask her to dance…”

“ _Hans._ ”

“...then I’m going to punch you...” 

“Ok, fine.”

“...right in your big, stupid face.”

“I said _fine_.”

“Good.” 

They were silent for a moment before Kristoff gave him a small grin. “Big, stupid face?”

“Big, stupid, and cute,” Hans said quiet enough for no else to hear. 

As Anna approached them, Kristoff cleared his throat and straightened up his back. 

“Hey guys,” she said as she reached them. She was slightly winded and there was a light blush on her cheeks from her dancing. 

“What happened to Merida?” Kristoff asked. 

“Her and her friends from that band are going to go grab some food now that their set is done.”

The music started up then and, just as Hans had suspected, it was soft and melodic with the duo singing in sweet harmony. Kristoff looked up at the stage and then back to Anna. “Would you, um, would you like to dance?” 

“Really?” Hans watched Anna’s eyes light up with excitement as she looked at Kristoff. A bit of apprehension passed over her features though as she glanced over at Hans. He knew what she was worried about, that it would make Hans feel like a third wheel. 

“I’ll watch the little ones,” Hans said, wanting to reassure her. He took the stuffed bear and sea turtle out of Kristoff’s hands and tucked them under his arm to join the bison. “You two go dance.” 

They each gave him a small nod and then, hand in hand, walked out into the open area that was now filled with other couples slow dancing. Hans watched as Kristoff’s large hands settled on the curve of Anna’s hips and as Anna's delicate hands wound their way around the back of Kristoff’s neck. Biting the inside of his cheek, Hans pulled out his phone and began to idly scroll through it. It would be creepy to just stare at them the whole time they danced, he figured. 

{ ~ }

When they found an open spot out in the dance area, Kristoff stopped and placed his hands on Anna’s hips. She reached up and placed her hands around the back of his neck. He felt that familiar tingle down the back of his spine that always came from her touch. 

Hans had been right, Kristoff thought, this slow dancing thing wasn’t so bad. His feet didn’t need to move much. Just some rocking and slowly spinning in place. Anna smiled up at him and then rested her head against his chest. Kristoff let his arms wrap around her more as she moved closer to him. He gave her a small kiss to the top of her head, smelling her shampoo, before looking forward again. 

As they slowly turned, Kristoff’s eyeline landed on Hans. He had their prizes tucked under one arm as he looked down and scrolled through his phone. Probably the only person on the planet who could still look cool while holding three ridiculous looking stuffed animals. 

Kristoff’s mind began to wander. What would it be like to dance with Hans like this? To hold him this way and sway slowly back and forth. It wasn’t a thing he would ever get to find out, was it? Because it wasn’t something he’d ever be brave enough to do. Not in front of a crowd like this. 

~

As the sun dipped below the horizon, an announcement was made that the fireworks would be starting in fifteen minutes. Anna told them how she had heard that the best place to watch the show was from the top of North Hill. So the three of them, each with their own stuffed animal in hand, walked across the quad in the direction of North Hill. The viewing spot didn’t seem to be much of a secret though, for there were lots of other groups of students around as they began to climb up the hill. 

“Watch out for that rock,” Hans said, grabbing Kristoff by the arm and pointing. “Don’t want you to trip and fall down the hill.” 

“Ha ha ha,” Kristoff responded dryly, the memory of his sledding accident from the beginning of the semester playing over in his mind. 

“That would be _so_ embarrassing. Anna, can you _imagine_?” Hans was speaking in an overly dramatic tone which was making her giggle. “Falling and rolling all the way down North Hill? In front of everyone? _God_ , I wouldn’t be able to live with that kind of embarrassment.”

“Shut up before I _throw_ you down the hill,” Kristoff grumbled. 

“Would. Not. Be. Able. To live with it,” he continued on as if he didn’t hear Kristoff. “I would drop out of school. Move to a new city. Change my name.”

Kristoff lunged in his direction and Hans hopped away with a flash of a grin. He began to sprint up the hill as Kristoff gave chase. 

“Guys!” Anna called from behind them, “Wait up!”

Hans beat him to the top of the hill, of course, and turned back to give Kristoff a smug smile as he eventually reached him. Kristoff brought an arm up around the back of Hans’s neck and pulled him into a barely-there head lock, being minding to make it appear as casual and bro-like as possible. He let his arm linger for only a moment before dropping it away as Anna caught up to them. 

Kristoff looked back out over the direction they came. He had only ever been up here that one day it was snowing. On a clear night like this he could see all the lights of campus and the town beyond. The three of them sat down in the grass, Anna on his left and Hans on his right, and waited for the fireworks to start.

“Thanks again for tonight, guys,” Anna said. “It’s been so much fun.”

“Yeah, it’s been really great.” Kristoff thought about how, if it weren’t for knowing Anna and Hans, he likely would never have even heard of this event. He probably would have spent the night alone in his apartment studying instead of here on campus, enjoying a beautiful night with his two friends. 

“I’m feeling a lot better about the whole divorce thing, by the way. I’m over the initial shock of it all now. Moving past the whole blaming myself thing.”

“That’s really good,” Hans said. 

“Elsa was telling me how, once our parents sell the town house, I can go stay with her instead of moving into either of my parents’ new places.” Anna picked at the grass. “It’s weird though, thinking about not going back to live in the place I grew up. I guess I had these ideas in my mind, these plans of how life would be like in the future. Like Christmases for example. I always imagined Elsa and I, with our future spouses and kids, coming and staying with our parents at the townhouse on Christmas Eve. And then Christmas morning we’d all wake up together as a big extended family and open presents and stuff together. Now who knows what we’ll do on Christmas.” 

Kristoff looked down at his lap. A big family. It was something he had always wanted too. 

“Life rarely goes according to plan,” Hans said. “But a lot of times, even if it’s hard to see it at the time, it ends up being for the best.” 

Kristoff agreed with that. If his life had gone exactly how he’d originally planned it, then he would have graduated college two years ago. He’d have a steady job and him and Paige would probably still be together. Kristoff’s time here at Arendelle University would never have overlapped with either Hans or Anna’s. He never would have met either of them. 

“Speaking of stuff like Christmas,” Hans said cautiously, “If you’re feeling better about things, it’s worth it to start looking at the silver linings to the whole divorced parents thing.” 

Anna arched an eyebrow at him. “Silver linings?” 

“Yeah, like guilting your parents into better presents. Because even if they don’t act like it, parents usually feel _really_ guilty about getting divorced. It’s this subconscious thing that makes them feel like they failed at life or whatever.”

Kristoff huffed. “A bit cynical, no?” 

“Hey,” Hans raised his hands defensively. “They’re the ones choosing to get divorced. Trust me Anna whichever comes next, Christmas or your birthday, go big with what you ask for because you’re almost _guaranteed_ to get it.” 

“If you say so,” she said, not sounding entirely convinced. “And it’s my birthday that comes next, by the way. End of June.”

“Really? Mine’s at the end of July.” 

“Aww,” Anna said with a smile, “We’ll be the same age for like a month.” She turned then and looked at Kristoff expectantly. 

_Ah, fuck._

“When’s your birthday?” she asked him. 

Kristoff fiddled with the teddy bear in his lap as he felt his face get warm. “Um, over break.” 

Anna tilted her head. “You mean like over summer break? Like our birthdays?”

“No. The break that just happened.” 

“What?” Anna blinked. 

“Wait, are you, wait,” Hans did a stunned little head shake. “Are you telling us your birthday was like a week and a half ago?”

Kristoff shrugged. “...Yes?” 

“Oh my _god_ ,” Anna gave him a shove. “Are you serious?” 

Hans shoved him back the other way, “Why didn’t you tell us?” 

“Sorry? It never came up and it felt awkward to bring up out of nowhere.”

“No, jeeze, don’t apologize. It’s your _birthday_.” Anna took a deep breath and Kristoff could see the gears begin to turn in her head. “I feel so bad. We didn’t get to wish you a happy birthday. We didn’t do anything to celebrate. And,” she gasped, “Oh god, I need to get you something.” 

“No,” Kristoff said firmly. “You guys don’t have to get me anything.” 

“Come on,” Hans urged. “We gotta get you _something_.”

“No, seriously. I don’t want you guys buying me anything.” 

Anna looked down at the stuffed sea turtle in her lap. She ran her thumb over the stitching of its smile before holding it out to him. “Happy birthday, Kristoff.” He gave her an unsure look but she just held it further out. “I didn’t buy it.” 

Kristoff’s eyes moved between her and the sea turtle, his mouth slightly open. Anna was such a bright and animated person. She could make friends with anybody and could find the joy in any moment. Those were the things about Anna that initially drew him to her. But since they’ve gotten to know each other better, Kristoff had come to discover the deep kindness and goodness that lay within her. And it made his heart ache that she was wanting to direct that kindness and goodness towards him. “Thank you,” he said as he took it from her. 

“Hey,” Hans said, drawing his attention. He gave Kristoff a warm smile and held out his stuffed bison. “Happy birthday, man.” 

Kristoff held his gaze for a moment before reaching out to take it, allowing his fingers to casually brush against the back of the other man’s hand as he did so. “Thank you.” He gathered all three stuffed animals together in his lap. “Thank you both.”

“This isn’t over though,” Anna said as she pointed her finger sternly at him. “We’re going to find a way to celebrate. Friday.”

“Agreed,” Hans said. “Anna and I will put our heads together and think of something good.” 

“Well, I look forward to whatever Anna comes up with.” 

Hans threw his head back and laughed in response. 

The fireworks started suddenly then, all of their eyes instantly drawn up to the sky. They were so close to the source that, even up here on the North Hill, they all still had to crane their necks all the way back. Anna laid back in the grass and encouraged the guys to do the same, saying it was a much more comfortable way to watch. Kristoff placed the three stuffed animals down on the ground next to himself and laid back as well, stretching his legs out.

As he looked up at the bright explosions in the sky, Kristoff kept his hands on his chest, fingers interlaced. It seemed the safest way to make sure that he didn’t reach out and take hold of both Hans and Anna’s hands. But he snuck glances at the two of them throughout the firework show and watched the light and colors dance across each of their faces. 

~

Later that night, once he was back in his apartment, Kristoff arranged the teddy bear, bison, and sea turtle on top of his dresser. They really were cheap and silly looking stuffed animals, but with the meaning they now had there was no way he was hiding them away somewhere. 

He pulled his phone out and looked at the picture of the three of them again. Kristoff can’t remember the last time he actually went and printed out a picture. Probably not since before Grandma Bulda died. But he was definitely printing this one out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shout out to Gabi ([gabiwnomagic on tumblr](https://gabiwnomagic.tumblr.com/)) whose sketches inspired the idea of how tricky a selfie with these three differently-heighted dorks would be. 
> 
>   
> We’re over 125k words now! Woo! (I think I missed acknowledging the 100k mark, oops.) But at these milestones I like to stop and give a **THANK YOU** to everyone who reads, comments, and leaves kudos. I can’t tell you how much your support means to me. There is still so much story left and there are lots of ups and downs to come for our trio. I promise a happy and cuddly ending though :)


	32. Chapter 32

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Happy (belated) birthday, Kristoff - Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Content warning: homophobia/biphobia]

When Kristoff walked into class that Thursday he was surprised to find Anna and Hans already there. He was usually the first of the three to get to class, the other two typically sliding into their seats at the last minute just before the professor started talking. 

“Hey guys, what’s up?” he asked as he sat down. 

“We figured out what we’re going to do to celebrate your birthday,” Anna said quickly, seemling ready to burst. 

“Oh yeah?” 

“Yep! Hans, drumroll please.” 

Hans complied, rapping his fingers against his desk and then pointing at her dramatically 

“We’re going to cook you dinner!” she declared. 

“Really?” That was the last thing he had expected to hear. Kristoff had assumed their plans were just going to involve more partying, not that they were actually going to _do_ something for him. 

“Yes!” Anna clasped her hands together. “Because you know how we always order pizza on Friday nights? Instead of that Hans and I are going to actually cook an actual dinner in your kitchen.”

“In my kitchen?”

“You’re the only one of us that has a real kitchen,” Hans pointed out. Which, yes, was true. And made Kristoff wonder how often the two of them ever actually cooked. 

“Just a fair warning,” Kristoff said, looking between them both. “My kitchen is kinda small for three people.” 

“Not three, just two. It’s just going to be the two of us cooking. You,” Hans pointed at him, “Birthday boy, are going to sit back and do nothing.”

“Exactly,” Anna agreed. “Oh, except we need you to drive us to the grocery store tomorrow to pick everything up. You’re the only one with a car.”

Kristoff nodded. “Right.” 

{ ~ } 

The next day they all met up earlier than normal since the shopping and cooking would take up extra time. As they walked up and down the aisles of the grocery store, Kristoff pushed the shopping cart and Anna and Hans collected items off the shelves. 

“So, what exactly are we cooking tonight?” Hans asked her. 

Anna held up the printed out recipes. “The main dish is breaded chicken stuffed with spinach and goat cheese and then we’re also going to make a salad with a homemade lemon vinaigrette dressing.” 

“Wow, that sounds really good. And you’ve cooked all this before?”

“No, I found the recipes on Pinterest the other day. But I printed them all out so all we have to do is just get all the ingredients and follow all the steps. Nice and easy.” 

“That makes sense.” Hans looked around. “Anything else we need in this aisle?” 

“We need breadcrumbs,” Anna pointed to the shelves behind Hans where they were. 

He turned around to look. “What kind?” 

“What do you mean what kind?”

Hans gestured widely to the shelves in front of him. “Italian style, plain, garlic and herb, panko.” 

“Oh. I didn’t know there were so many different ones.” Anna looked over the recipe again. “It doesn’t say what kind. It just says breadcrumbs.”

“Let’s get panko. That sounds cool.” Hans picked up a container off the shelf. “How much should we get?”

“The recipe says we need one cup.” 

“The label says 24oz.” Hans tsked. “Why would the recipe give it to us in cups if breadcrumbs come in ounces?”

“We can do the conversation, right? Aren’t there 8oz in a cup?”

“I think that’s for liquid, not solid.”

Anna scrunched up her nose. “Why would it be different?”

“Hmm,” Hans hummed. “I don’t know, maybe I’m thinking of something else. Let’s get two just to be safe.” 

Anna and Hans turned back around to find Kristoff staring at them with his forehead creased and a perplexed look on his face. 

“Do you guys… not really cook that much?” 

“Nope,” Hans shook his head. 

“I cook every Sunday, actually.” Anna said with confidence, but then realized that wasn’t completely true. “Well. I _help_ cook. It’s really Elsa and Maren that do most of the cooking and Ryder and I just sort of help out. But! I watch what they do and pick up on stuff. Plus, like I said, all we have to do is just follow the recipe.”

“Exactly,” Hans said as he tossed the breadcrumbs into the shopping cart. “it’ll be fine.” 

{ ~ }

Kristoff had a feeling that this was not going to be fine. In fact, listening to the two of them as they finished collecting the rest of the ingredients, Kristoff wondered if it was going to be a bit of a disaster. He didn’t want to say anything though. Anna and Hans both seemed so excited to be doing this. And the fact that they were doing it _for him_ was really sweet. 

Whatever happened, it would make for a nice night. If things went well, they’d have a delicious dinner to eat. If things didn’t go well, then it would probably be somewhat entertaining to watch. And if things _really_ didn’t go well, he had a first aid kit and a fire extinguisher in his apartment. 

~

As they were walking back out to Kristoff’s car with all the groceries, Hans pointed across the shopping center. “There’s a liquor store over there. We should get a bottle of wine to have with the fancy birthday dinner.”

“Ooh,” Anna smiled. “That’s a great idea.”

“I’ll go over quick and pick it up while you guys load up the car.” Hans headed off in a light jog. 

“You think your ID will work in there?” Anna called after him. 

Hans turned around to look at them but continued walking backwards in the direction of the liquor store. “Worth a shot. And if not we can always send the old man in.”

Kristoff gave him the finger and Hans shot him a grin before turning back around and hurrying off. 

By the time Anna and Kristoff got the groceries loaded into the car, Hans was walking back over to them. But instead of _a_ bottle of wine he had _two_ big bags in his hands. 

Kristoff let out a long breath. “Exactly how much wine are we going to be drinking tonight?” 

“Calm down, it’s not all meant for tonight. And it’s not all wine.” Hans placed both bags into the truck of Kristoff’s car

Anna began to look through them. “Bacardi, Patron, Fireball, Smirnoff. Damn, you got a lot of stuff.” 

“Kristoff only ever has beer in his apartment, so now we have better pregaming options.” 

“We?” Kristoff arched an eyebrow at him. He was never really one for hard liquor. 

“Yes,” Hans clapped him on the shoulder. “You’re welcome, by the way.” 

{ ~ } 

Back at Kristoff’s apartment, Anna and Hans began to get started on the dinner. They had suggested that Kristoff put his feet up and watch something on the TV, but he said he had some school work to do so he was over in living room work on that. 

Anna felt bad that they kept having to ask him where things were. He even had to stand up to come in and show them a few times, but Anna would quickly shoo him back into the living room. 

Her and Hans decided to start on breading the chicken first and got three plates set up with the egg, flour, and breadcrumbs. Turns out they bought way more breadcrumbs then they actually needed. 

“Ok, what’s next?” Anna asked. 

Hans held up the recipe and read it. “It says we need to flatten the chicken breasts to a one quarter inch thickness. How do we do that?”

“You use a meat tenderizer.” Anna felt a bit of pride for knowing that. She had seen Elsa do it a few weeks earlier when they had chicken parm. 

“The hell is a meat tenderizer?”

“It looks like a hammer.” 

Hans made a face. “I’m supposed to hit the chicken with a hammer?”

“Actually, um,” Kristoff spoke up from the living room. “I don’t have a meat tenderizer.”

“Then what the hell do I do?” Hans’s shoulders slumped

“Make it work,” Anna said in a low voice and then laughed, but Hans just stared at her blankly. She clearly needed to explain the joke further. “Like Tim Gunn from-,”

“ _Yes_ , I got the reference thank you very much.” Hans picked up a pinch of flower and flicked it at Anna. She smiled and gave him a light shove back. 

“You don’t need a meat tenderizer to flatten the chicken,” Kristoff said as he stood and walked over into the kitchen. “I always just use a frying pan.” 

He got a frying pan out from one of the low cabinets along with some cling wrap. He showed them how they needed to put the cling wrap over the chicken first to create a barrier. Kristoff lifted the frying pan up and was about to slam it down when Anna grabbed his arm. 

“Wait, wait, wait!” she said, stopping him. “You can’t do it. We’re supposed to be cooking _for_ you. Hans, you do it.”

Kristoff nodded and handed the frying pan off to Hans, who seemed very unsure about the whole thing. He stepped up to the kitchen counter with a furrowed brow and began to tap the chicken with the frying pan

“No, ah,” Kristoff frowned. “That’s not how you do it. You need to _hit_ it. Like, hard.” 

Hans gave the chicken a few hard whacks but then stopped and looked back at them suspiciously. 

“This is fucking weird. Hitting chicken with a frying pan? This can’t actually be how you cook. I feel like you guys are just making this up to fuck with me.”

Anna brought a hand up to her face to hide her smile as she did her best to not laugh. It was kind of a funny sight. 

“I promise,” Kristoff chuckled. “This is how you do it.”

Hans turned back around and began to _whack, whack_ the chicken. Anna started to giggle which made Hans glare at her from over his shoulder. 

“I could have made like five different jokes-,” _whack_ , “about beating meat by this point-,” _whack_ , “but I _haven’t_ -,” _whack_ , “and I feel like I’m not getting appreciated-,” _whack_ , “for that restraint.”

“We’re so proud of you,” Kristoff said with a roll of his eyes. 

“Thank you for your help,” Anna said to Kristoff while giving him a pat on the arm. “Go sit back down.” 

He headed back to his school work in the living room and Anna figured she might as well get started on the vinaigrette for the salad. First step, zest three lemons. Anna began to dig through the drawers of Kirstoff’s kitchen. 

“Kristoff,” she called out to him, “Where do you keep your lemon zester?”

“I don’t have a lemon zester.” 

“Well what do you use to zest lemons then?” If he had a workaround for not having a meat tenderizer then surely he also had a workaround for having a lemon zester. 

Kristoff gave her an apologetic smile. “Gunna be honest here, I’ve never had to zest a lemon in my life.”

“Make it work,” Hans said to her in the same Tim Gunn voice that she had done to him earlier before he gave the chicken another _whack_ with the frying pan. 

Anna stuck her tongue out at him before taking out her phone to google how to zest a lemon without a zester. 

{ ~ }

Breading chicken was way grosser of a task than Hans ever imagined it to be. His fingers kept getting caked in the egg and flour and breadcrumbs. Anna helped him through most of it and the two of them ended up going through half a roll of paper towels with how often they were wiping their hands clean. 

They then had to stuff them and roll them and close them with toothpicks. The recipe said they should only need two or three, but they must have done it wrong because each piece of chicken ended up with about fifteen toothpicks. They looked like fucking hedgehogs by the end of it, but at least they were done. 

“Ok, last step is: put chicken into preheated oven.” Anna's face dropped “Shit, we forgot to preheat the oven,” she whispered. 

“What’s the big deal?” Hans matched her quiet tone, not wanting Kristoff to catch on that something was wrong. “Can’t we just turn the oven on now and stick the chicken in?”

“It takes time for the oven to heat up, so it’s going to take so much longer for the chicken to cook.” She looked so worried and disappointed in herself for forgetting. 

“That’s ok,” Hans said as an idea came to him. “We can work around this. What were we supposed to preheat the oven to?”

“350 degrees.”

“Right,” Hans glanced back over his shoulder to confirm that Kristoff was still focused on his school work. “Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to set the oven to 450 degrees.” 

Anna gave him an unsure look. “Is that a good idea?”

“Yes, because then the oven will heat up faster. And then once it’s heated up we can just turn it back down to 350.” 

“Everything good?” Kristoff called out from the living room. He must have seen them huddled together whispering. 

“Yes!” They said in unison.

“Everything is great,” Anna gave Kristoff a smile and wave. “Chicken is going in now.” 

Hans reached over and turned the oven on to 450 degrees. 

{ ~ } 

As the chicken cooked, Anna began to clean up while Hans cut the lettuce for the salad. It was kind of crazy how much of a mess they had managed to make in Kristoff’s kitchen. 

“Shit,” Hans hissed and the knife he was holding dropped to the kitchen counter with a clang. 

Anna looked over to see him grimacing and clutching one of his fingers tight with his other hand. “What happened?”

“I cut myself,” he said, his voice pained. 

“ _What?_ ” Kristoff was up off the couch and into the kitchen in a flash. He came around to Hans’s side and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Did you cut it bad?” 

“I-I don’t know,” Hans stuttered. “I’m too scared to look.” 

“Anna,” Kristoff looked at her and she could see the worry in his face, “I have a first aid kit under the sink in the bathroom. Can you go grab it?”

She nodded and rushed to go get it. By the time she got back, Kristoff had led Hans over to the sink. Anna came over to the other side of Hans and put the first aid kit down on the counter. But in her rush to open it up, she ended up knocking the bowl of the vingeriette that she had made over. 

“Shit,” she mumbled, picking the first aid kit back up to keep it clean and blotting at the spilled vingeriette with a handful of used paper towels. 

“It’s ok, let me look,” she heard Kristoff say gently. He still had one hand on his shoulder and the other was on Hans’s forearm. 

“Ok,” Hans closed his eyes and turned his face away before releasing his grip. “How bad is it?”

There was some blood, which made Anna cringe, but she didn’t think it looked so bad. Would probably just need a single bandaid. But Kristoff sucked in a sharp breath. 

“You can still play lacrosse with only nine fingers, right?” he asked, his voice ominous. 

“ _What?_ ” Hans gasped as his eyes shot open in horror. When he saw that it was just a small cut, Hans let out a relieved sigh. “Jesus fucking christ, Kristoff.”

“I know, I know. I’m sorry,” Kristoff smiled. “But now the actual cut doesn’t seem so bad, right?” 

Hans nodded begrudgingly and Anna saw his shoulders relax. 

“You’re ok,” Kristoff said. Anna watched as he reached up to give Hans a gentle and reassuring pat on his cheek. “You had a bit of a scare, but you’re ok.” 

”Thank you,” Hans said quietly. 

Anna brought the first aid kit around to the other side of the sink and they got Hans’s cut all cleaned up and a bandaid on it. It was sweet, Anna thought, how Kristoff was being with Hans. And how good of friends the two of them had become considering where they had started.

A loud, piercing alarm caused the three of them to all jump. For a second confusion and panic seized her, her eyes darting around trying to figure out the source of the sound. It was then that she saw the smoke coming from the oven and her heart sank. 

“Oh no!” Anna rushed over, grabbing the oven mitts in the process. When she opened the oven a plume of smoke puffed out. They never remembered to turn the temperature of the oven back down. 

Kristoff reached up to tap the smoke alarm off before opening the window in the kitchen. “Is it on fire? I have an extinguisher.”

“No, but it’s burnt,” Anna said as she took the tray out of the oven and tried to wave away the smoke. The cute little pieces of stuffed chicken that her and Hans had spent so much time on were now black lumps. She wanted to cry. “It’s ruined.” 

“Maybe we can scrape off the burned parts?” Hans suggested. 

“I don’t think we can,” Anna walked over to the stove top and placed the tray down. “I’m so sorry, Kristoff.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry too,” Hans sounded just as crestfallen as her. “The oven thing was all my fault. We really fucked this dinner up.” 

“Hey, no. C’mere,” Kristoff walked over to Anna, hugging her. He then reached an arm out to Hans, grabbing him by the shoulder and pulling him over. Hans put his arms around both of them. Anna leaned her face forward, each half of her forehead pressed against their two chests. They stood there for a quiet moment and Anna closed her eyes, feeling her heart rate slow back down to normal after the duel scares of Hans’s cut and the smoke alarm. 

After a moment, Kristoff dropped his arms and stepped back. “Look, even if it ended up, uh,” he pointed over at the burnt slabs of chicken, “I still really appreciate it. It’s been a long time since-,” he fidgeted slightly, “Since anyone did anything for my birthday. So, thank you.” 

“We just wanted to do something nice for you,” Anna told him. 

“You did,” Kristoff smiled at them both and Anna could see a genuine happiness in his eyes. 

“So…” Hans shrugged, “Pizza?” 

~

They managed to get the kitchen mostly cleaned up by the time the pizza came. And even though their fancy dinner had been ruined, they decided to still open the bottle of wine. Thankfully Kristoff did own a wine bottle opener. 

“A miracle,” Hans joked as he popped the cork. 

He didn’t have any real wine glasses though, so they drank out of regular glasses. 

The three of them sat on the couch, Kristoff in the middle, as they toasted to his birthday and had their pizza. As they sat and ate, Anna eyed her purse over on the floor. Kristoff had said he didn’t want them to buy him anything, but in the end she couldn’t help herself. It would be best to give it to him in the morning over breakfast, she figured, when it was just the two of them. 

{ ~ }

“I feel like we should do that more often,” Anna said, sounding actually serious. “The cooking thing.”

“Really?” Hans asked. “Because I feel like we should never do that again.”

The three of them were together in a quiet corner of the house party with their red cups of shit beer. 

“I got to take Anna’s side on this,” Kristoff said. “It could be fun.” 

“Kristoff,” Hans placed a serious hand on his shoulder. “Next time your place might actually burn down. Or someone might actually lose a limb. 

“I’ll supervise you two more closely next time,” Kristoff said with a wink before taking another drink of his beer. 

“Fine,” Hans dropped his hand away. “But I get to pick the recipe next time. Something not so messy. I think that’s where most of our issues were.” 

“Excuse me. The recipe I picked was _not_ the issue.” Anna tried to scowl at him but Hans could see that her mouth was fighting a smile. “Everything was going fine until you cut yourself.” 

“How dare you? I suffered a _traumatic_ injury,” Hans put on a fake serious tone and held up his hand to show off the bandaid on his finger. “Who knows how long it will take for me to recover from this.” 

They all laughed but then Hans froze when someone put their hands over his eyes from behind. 

“Guess who!” a girl’s voice cooed. 

“Ahhhh,” Hans said, completely unable to place the voice. “I give up.”

“Surprise!” She dropped her hands and bounded around to his side. 

“Oh hey,” Hans said once he saw her face. It was Andrea, a freshman girl he had hooked up with one time last semester. “Guys, this is Andrea. Andrea, these are my friends Anna and Kristoff.”

“Hi,” she said cheerfully as she reached out to shake Anna’s hand. “Oh my _god_ , I _love_ your earrings! They’re amazing.” 

“Thank you,” Anna said as she reached a hand up to them. 

“Wow,” she said as she shook Kristoff’s hand, “You’re really tall.”

“Uh, thanks,” he responded awkwardly and Hans watched as Anna stepped closer to Kristoff and took hold of his arm. 

Andrea turned her attention back to Hans. “I was heading to the kitchen to get a refill and saw you and just _had_ to say hi.” She held up her empty red cup, “Did any of you want one? I’m happy to get it for you.” 

“I think I’m done drinking for the night,” Anna said. 

“Yeah, me too,” Kristoff added.

“I think I’m ok,” Hans held up his half full cup. “Thank you though.” 

“Well, I’ll be around the rest of the night.” Andrea nipped at the corner of her bottom lip and gave Hans’s bicep a squeeze before turning to look at Anna and Kristoff. “It was nice to meet you guys.”

“You too,” they both said. She gave them a wave and headed off. 

“Sooo,” Anna said after Andrea was gone, “How do you know her?”

“We just, ah, met at a party last semester.” ...And then went back to her dorm and fucked. Hans left that part out but he was sure they could fill in the blanks. 

“She’s pretty.” 

“Yeah,” Kristoff agreed. “You gunna go talk to her some more?”

Were they trying to get rid of him? They did just turn down another beer, so maybe they were looking to head out soon. It was something that Hans had noticed in the past, that on Friday nights the two of them would wait until he was paired off with someone else before leaving to go back to Kristoff’s apartment. Hans had hoped to hang out a bit longer, but didn’t want to keep them. 

“Yeah, I do kinda want to go talk to her some more. You guys don’t mind if I-,” Hans pointed over his shoulder in Andrea’s direction.

“Nope.”

“Not at all.”

“Ok,” Hans nodded. “I’m going to go find her then.” 

“If we don’t see you, have a good night,” Anna smiled at him. 

“You too,” he said as he walked away. 

{ ~ } 

As her and Kristoff were leaving the party, Anna couldn’t help but take one last look over her shoulder at where Hans was. Andrea had her hands on him and it made Anna wince. She saw Hans smile at the girl. But it wasn’t his real smile, she thought with some satisfaction. It was his flirting smile. The one where he would try to be suave and slick and just the right amount of cocky. It was sexy as hell and Anna always buzzed with electricity any time she was on the receiving end of it. 

But it wasn’t his _real_ smile. The smile when he wasn’t thinking about how to smile. The smile from laughs that would sometimes descend into slightly effeminate giggles that Anna found to be so sweet and endearing. The smile when he was teasing her or Kristoff. The smile that came when he was relaxed and being himself. 

Anna tightened her grip around Kristoff’s arm as they began to walk away from the party and back in the direction of his apartment. It’s a good thing, she reminded herself, that Hans doesn’t go home alone on Friday nights. 

{ ~ } 

Andrea lived in one of the freshman dorms and her roommate was going to be around, so they decided to head to Hans’s place after they left the party. The whole walk back, she had her hands all on him and she was whispering suggestive things in his ear. Hans was feeling his pants tighten and he was eager to get her back to his room. Andrea was a bit of a wildcat from what he remembered from their last time together. 

“Can I just say? I love crop tops.” Hans had an arm around her and his fingers brushed up and down the exposed skin of her midriff. 

Andrea giggled and tucked herself closer to him. “You’re ridiculous.” 

“I’m serious. Whoever is responsible for bringing crop tops back into style deserves an award.”

“What are you, some sort of fashion expert?”

“I’d like to think so, yes.”

“Hmm,” she hummed teasingly. “I guess, you do dress pretty good for a straight guy.”

It hit him like a cold chill. Now he had a decision to make. Hans took a breath. She seemed cool. 

“I’m not straight,” he said plainly. 

“Yeah _right_ ,” Andrea laughed and gave him a playful smack on the arm. When she noticed that Hans wasn’t laughing along she stopped walking. “Wait, are you serious?”

“Yeah, I’m not straight. I’m bi.” 

“But-,” Andrea let go of his arm and took a step back. “But you and I had sex before, last semester. You acted like you were really into it.” 

“I wasn’t acting, I _was_ really into it. You’re super sexy.” Hans gave her a flirty smile and he hoped that would be the end of the conversation. But Andrea just scowled deeper. 

“So what are you saying? That I look like a dude? That I’m, like, manly or something?”

“No,” Hans shook his head. “That’s not how it works. I’m into girls.” 

“But you’ve had sex with guys?” 

Hans saw the look on her face. He knew that look and what it meant. 

“Yes,” was all he said in response, knowing there was nothing else to be said. This was already done. 

Andrea readjusted the strap of her purse and looked away. “I’m going to go,” she said quietly before beginning to walk away. 

Hans bit at his upper lip as he stared down at the ground. He didn’t actually give a shit about Andrea. Yeah she was hot but she wasn’t anything more to him than a one night stand from last semester. It’s not like he ever would have cared if he never saw her again. He knew he should just leave it, just keep his mouth shut and go back to his room. 

But he couldn’t help himself. The anger and the shame and the bitterness were swirling deep in his gut and _fuck_ this bitch. 

“Fine,” Hans spat. “Go ahead. Walk away. Be like that.”

Andrea turned back around and looked at him with anger in her eyes. “Be like _what?_ I’m not the bad guy here.”

“And I am?” he scoffed. 

“You lied to me,” she shouted as she stalked back in his direction. 

“Bullshit. I never lied to you about anything.”

“A lie by omission is still a lie. You were _deceitful_.” Her voice dripped with contempt as she said the word. “If I knew you had sex with guys then I never would have had sex you.”

“Well,” Hans let out a bitter laugh, trying to push away everything that was welling up in his chest. “If I knew you were homophobic then I never would have had sex with you. But, life is full of disappointments, so.” 

“I’m not homophobic!” Andrea stomped her foot, her high heel clapping loud against the cement. “One of my best friends is a gay guy. I _love_ gay guys. I just don’t want to have _sex_ with a gay guy.”

“I’m not gay!” Hans shouted, his voice echoing through the campus courtyard. His heart was beating hard in his chest and, _dammit_ , what the hell was he even doing this for? 

“You know what? You’re not even worth it. Have a nice life.” He turned and started walking off. What he should have done from the start. 

“Asshole!” Andrea shouted at his back but he didn’t look back. He just shoved his hands in his pockets and hunched his shoulders. 

_Fuck._

When Hans got back to his place in Isle Hall two of his suitemates, Lee and Furlong, were hanging out in the common area watching TV. 

“Hey Westergaard,” Lee said, looking over his shoulder with a stupid fucking smirk on his face. “All alone tonight?” 

“Fuck off,” Hans snapped as he head right for his room. 

“ _Jeeze_ , man. Whatever. I was just-,” 

Hans slammed the door behind himself before Lee could finish what he was saying. Running a hand through his hair Hans was once again thankful that, out of the five of them in the suite, he had managed to get the single room and was therefore able to be alone the rest of the night. 

There was a half a bottle of vodka in the back of his closet and a couple more gummy bear edibles in the top drawer of his desk. He contemplated it for a moment but decided no, he couldn’t just always keep doing that. He’d have to live with his own thoughts tonight. 

With a groan he threw himself back onto the bed. _God fucking damnit_. Years into being out and he still had to do this _shit_. Still had to have these moments where he needed to weigh the pros and cons and decide if it was worth telling the truth. Of course he could have lied, could have laughed along with Andrea in that moment. ‘Oh yeah hahaha I guess I do dress nice for a straight guy.’ And then fucked her and then never seen her again. But, why? Why should _he_ have to lie and dance around it? Why was every choice in a moment like that a bad one? Why couldn’t straight girls just not get so fucking freaked out by it? 

Well. Not _all_ straight girls. 

Hans thought about what Anna’s reaction had been when he told her, when he said those words to her. _‘I’m bi.’_ That cold night they sat up on the roof of her dorm after having sex for the first time, sharing a bottle of wine and looking up at the stars. All she had said was _‘Ok, that’s what I thought, but didn’t want to assume.’_ and then took another swig of wine and leaned in closer to him. 

Rolling over, he stared at the blank white concrete wall. 

He had only even gone off with Andrea because he got the feeling that that was what Anna and Kristoff wanted. And he had been right because it wasn’t long after he walked away from them that he saw the two of them slip out the front door of the party. 

They were so similar without even realizing it. They both wanted Hans to be with someone else, to not be lonely while they went off without him. Hans didn’t know whether to hate it or find it endearing, but he knew that was how it had to be. He couldn’t be seen as trying to impede on the time that was _their_ time. No matter how great of night the three of them were having, no matter how much he wanted to stay just hanging with them. 

It was ok though. Hans would see them both again this weekend. At least, he was assuming so. There hadn’t been any plans made with either so far, but he felt confident that he’d see Anna tomorrow and Kristoff on Sunday. 

Hans rolled back over and looked across his room to where Kristoff’s birthday present sat in the corner and then smiled at the thought of giving it to him.


	33. Chapter 33

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Happy (belated) birthday, Kristoff - Part 2

Kristoff woke to the feeling of fingers brushing through the hair around his temple. He blinked his eyes open to find Anna laying on her side facing him, their noses practically touching.

“Morning, birthday boy,” she said with a wide smile.

Kristoff snorted and closed his eyes again. He let out a low grumble as he tightened the arm that was around her, pulling her closer.

“Am I really still the birthday boy?” he mused, his voice still thick with sleep. “My birthday was kinda a while ago now.” 

“ _Yes_ , still the birthday boy. Now, come on, time to wake up.” Anna began to get up from the bed tugging at Kristoff’s arm. He grumbled a bit more but scooted over to the edge of the bed and swung his legs over side, sitting up. Anna was standing and fruitlessly pulling on his arm to try to get him to stand. What was her rush? He was usually the one needing to eventually coax _her_ out of bed on Saturday mornings. 

“Can’t we just stay here a little longer?” he asked, hopeful. She seemed to think for a moment before smiling and taking a few steps back in his direction. 

“I guess a _little_ longer couldn’t hurt.”

Kristoff opened his legs to allow her to settle back into his lap. He kissed lightly at her neck, catching the faintest hint of yesterday’s perfume. It caused memories from the night before to swirl in his mind. Them undressing each other as soon as they stepped through his front door. Anna shoving him back into the bed. His hands clutching onto her thighs for dear life as she rode him hard and raked her nails down his chest. 

His fingers slowly inched up under the t-shirt of his that she was wearing as he kissed at her neck some more. 

“Hmm,” Anna hummed with some amusement. “So _this_ is why you wanted to stay in bed a little longer?”

“Maybe,” he mumbled against her skin. 

Anna gave him a knowing glance over her shoulder and then pulled the t-shirt up over her head and off, leaving her in nothing more than her panties. Soft morning light was streaming into his bedroom, making her sleep messed hair shine and allowing Kristoff to see every freckle on her pale skin. 

He allowed his hands to roam free, up and down her sides and around to her front. Anna sighed, leaning her back against his chest and letting her head lull backwards onto his shoulder. Looking over her shoulder and down her body, he watched his fingers swirl and then pinch at her perfect, pink nipples. Small sounds of pleasure came out of Anna as she squirmed in his lap, rubbing her rear end into his crotch. Kristoff groaned at the contact, nothing between the two of them besides his boxers and her panties. 

“Did you want to actually get more on the bed?” Anna asked, a breathiness to her voice. 

“We can have some fun just like this.” Kristoff gripped at her thigh with one hand as he let the fingers of his other lightly brush against the hem of her panties. 

“You’re the one that’s supposed to be getting the special attention, birthday boy.” 

“Well,” Kristoff nuzzled at her neck. “If I’m the birthday boy, can’t we just do what I want?”

“Hmm,” she purred. “What do you want?”

“I want to make you feel so good,” he whispered low in her ear and he felt her shudder. 

“I _guess_ that would be ok.” Opening her legs wider, Anna hooking her calves on the outsides of his knees. 

Inch by inch Kristoff slipped his hand down under her panties and past her patch of soft auburn curls. He let his finger run up and down her folds a few times, collecting wetness before pressing a single finger slowly into her silky warmth. 

“Kristoff,” Anna gasped softly and then twisted her neck in order to kiss him. He kissed her back, capturing with his mouth the soft moan she let out as he added a second finger. Her head fell back against his shoulder again and Kristoff kissed up and down along her neck. 

He moved a second hand down between her legs, seeking out her clit while the fingers of his other hand continued to pump in and out of her. Anna moved her hips in rhythm with his movements. She lifted an arm up and grabbed hold of the back of his head, her fingers threading deep in his hair. 

“Just like that,” she panted. “Kristoff, that feels, _oh_.”

Her whole body rocked against his and the friction of her ass grinding against his erection was becoming dizzying. Kristoff closed his eyes and leaned his cheek against hers, focusing on bringing her to her release and not accidentally finding his own right there in his boxers. 

“Krist- _ah_!” Anna went still and tight, her legs squeezing hard against his own. She pulled on the hair at the back of his head as she vibrated with pleasure and, _god_ , he could never get enough of making her come.

He could feel her body relax then as she melted against him. Kristoff moved his hands away from her center and wrapped them around her waist in a hug. 

“That was amazing,” Anna sighed. 

“I could tell,” Kristoff said with a small laugh as he kissed her cheek and temple. 

Anna unhooked her legs from the outside of his and turned slightly so she was facing him more. She let her fingers brush along the stubble of jaw before kissing him softly on the lips. 

“I still meant what I said before. About you getting some special attention.” 

Before he could say anything, Anna slipped down from his lap and onto the floor between his legs. Kristoff’s mouth went dry as those aqua eyes smiled up at him and her hands began to tug at the waistband of his boxers. 

{ ~ } 

As they walked out of his bedroom Kristoff placed a kiss to the top of Anna’s head. “You go sit, I’ll get the eggs started.”

“Wait,” Anna said, catching his arm. “We’re supposed to be celebrating your birthday this weekend. I should be the one that makes you breakfast.” 

“Ahhh...” Kristoff was looking at her with slightly nervous eyes. She could tell that he was trying to think of a polite way to decline her offer. 

“You think I don’t know how to cook eggs,” Anna said in an accusatory tone, narrowing her eyes at him. 

“Well...you _did_ kinda almost burn the place down last night,” he chuckled. 

“That wasn’t my fault,” she swatted at him. “And besides, it’s not that I’m a bad cook it’s just that I don’t have any practice.” 

It was then that Anna remembered her purse sitting on the ground next to the coffee table, and what was inside. The whole reason she had initially been so eager for them to get out of bed. 

“Actually, you know what? You’re right.” Anna pressed up on her toes to kiss him on the cheek. “You go cook, I’ll be waiting for you on the couch.” 

{ ~ } 

As Kristoff brought the plates of eggs into the living room he saw a mischievous smile on Anna’s face. 

“What’s that look for?” he asked. 

“Oh, _nothing_ ,” she said with a false innocence as she looked down at the coffee table. He followed her eyeline to find a small rectangular item wrapped in brightly colored paper. 

“Anna,” he said with a sigh as he sat next to her on the couch and put the plates down. “I told you I didn’t want you to buy me anything.”

“It’s nothing, really.”

“It’s literally not nothing. It’s a thing and therefore something.”

“Oh, come _on_.” Anna gave him a small nudge. “Just trust me and open it and you’ll see that it’s nothing.” 

Kristoff figured any further protests would be rude, so he picked the present up and began to peel back the wrapping. His heart skipped a beat once he saw what it was. 

“Ticonderoga pencils?” 

“Pre sharpened,” she beamed, bouncing slightly in her seat. “Just like you like them.”

Anna had said it was nothing and, in terms of price, that was true. Probably four dollars at most. But what they meant...

“You remembered.” His eyes lifting up to meet hers. 

“Of _course_ I remembered.” Anna reached out and placed a hand over his. “You think I would just forget that night?”

That night they nerded out over a silly thing like pencils, when she had come over under the false pretense of needing help with her math class. That was the first time she was ever in his apartment. The first time they were ever alone together. The first time they ate together. And then, after walking her back to her dorm, they kissed for the first time too. 

Everything about that moment came rushing back to him. Standing together in front of her dorm. The cold, crisp winter air around them. The way the light from inside the lobby shone through the glass doors and illuminated her beautiful face. The nervousness in his gut. The way his breath had caught when she unexpectedly kissed him on the cheek. 

It felt like yesterday and it felt like forever ago all at the same time. 

“Thank you,” he said. And then, just like he did that night, Kristoff brought hand up to Anna’s face, letting his thumb brush across her cheek, before leaning in and kissing her.

{ ~ }

_“Ooh, baby, do you know what that's worth?  
Ooh, heaven is a place on earth,  
They say in heaven love comes first,  
We'll make heaven a place on earth,”  
_

Anna clutched the microphone tight in her hands as she belted the lyrics out. Ryder was beside her, up on the karaoke stage at The Trading Post, doing his best to match her enthusiasm. It wasn’t the first time - and it definitely wouldn’t be the last time - that she had forced him to do this song with her. She always said it was her favorite and that she just _had_ to sing it every time they were there.

_“When I feel alone, I reach for you,  
And you bring me home,  
When I'm lost at sea I hear your voice,  
And it carries me,”  
_

Their group of friends were standing near the front of the stage and beyond them was the large crowd that typically filled the bar on a Saturday night. As she had been all night, Madison was hanging on the arm of that Joe guy she was seeing. She wasn’t paying attention to what was happening on stage, instead she was smiling and saying something to Joe. Joe, on the other hand, seemed to have very little interest in whatever Madison was saying. Standing next to Madison was Chloe. She was moving side to side slightly with the music and clapping along. When their eyes met Chloe smiled brightly at him. Ryder felt his face get warm and he smiled back at her before continuing to sing along to the song.

_“In this world we're just beginning,  
To understand the miracle of living,  
Baby, I was afraid before,  
But I'm not afraid anymore,”  
_

{ ~ }

At one point later in the night with everyone else either in the bathroom, up at the bar getting refills, or singing karaoke, Anna found herself standing alone. She had had a great night, but the hour was getting late and Anna was just about ready to head out. 

She took out her phone and typed out a message to Hans. 

_want to meet up soon?_

It didn’t take long for him to text. 

_yeah, where you at?_

She smiled and sent back a response. 

_trading post, meet me a block away in 10?_

Hans sent back two emojis - a smiling face and a thumbs up. 

“Your ass looks really great in those jeans,” a voice behind her said in a low, smooth tone. 

Anna nearly jumped and she snapped her head around to find Joe standing way too close to her. 

“Excuse me?” she asked, taking a step back from him. 

“I was just saying those jeans make your ass look good.” Joe grinned at her and his eyes looked her up and down. “Though, I know your ass looks good even when it’s not in jeans.” 

Anna felt her stomach drop. _Oh fuck_. He _did_ remember her. 

“Please don’t talk to me like that,” she said firmly, trying not to let the surprise of that revelation show in her voice. 

“It’s just a compliment, Anna.” His grin widened, as if something were amusing to him. “No need to get upset.” 

“Everything ok here?” she heard Ryder’s voice ask from behind her. 

“Yes,” Anna said, turning towards Ryder and stepping closer to him. “Everything’s fine, thank you.”

“Yep, just fine.” Joe gave Ryder an annoyed look and then walked off. Ryder eyed him as he went and then turned to Anna. 

“What the hell was that?” he asked. 

“He remembers me,” she said quietly. 

“What? I thought you said he didn’t?”

“I _thought_ he didn’t. But he just said something that heavily implies that he does.” Anna cringed and rubbed her forehead. “Ugh, it was kinda creepy, too.” 

“I can keep an eye out, make sure he doesn’t corner you again.” 

“Thank you, but that’s ok.” Anna shook her head. “It’s getting late so I was about to head back to campus anyway.” 

“Did you want me to walk with you?”

“No you don’t have to,” Anna said, knowing that Hans was going to be waiting for her. She grinned as she decided to change the subject. “ _Besides_ , was I imagining things or was something flirty happening between you and Chloe earlier?”

“Oh, ah,” Ryder scratched at the back of his neck and was suddenly blushing. “Yeah, I don’t know.” 

“Is there something going on with you two?” she asked hopefully. Ryder was always so unlucky with girls but Chloe was great. Her and Madison were Anna’s two closest girl friends at school. 

“We have been talking and texting a lot lately. But I don’t know if she likes me like _that_.” Ryder’s shoulders sagged. “I’m terrible at picking up signs. I know nothing about girls.” 

“Well…” Anna leaned in a bit closer to him. “The other day she may or may not have asked me if you were seeing anyone.”

“Really?” Ryder’s eyes lit up at that and he looked across the bar at where Chloe and Madison were finishing up their karaoke song. 

“You go shoot your shot.” Anna gave him a pat on the back. “I’m going to go to bed.” 

“Sounds good,” he said, giving her a hug goodbye. “I’ll keep an eye on Joe. If he tries to follow you out I’ll tackle him.” Ryder lifted his arms into the air. “Like, flying squirrel style leaping tackle.” 

Anna laughed. “Thank you,” she said before giving him one last squeeze on the arm and heading out. 

~

Hans was waiting for her out on the corner a block away, just as planned. 

“How was the Trading Post tonight?” he asked her as she approached. 

“Same as always. Cheap drinks and terrible karaoke.”

“Were you the one doing the terrible karaoke?”

“Naturally.” Anna did a dramatic bow and they both laughed. Then they started walking together back to campus. “Where were you tonight?” she asked. 

“Party over at kappa house,” Hans said, tucking his hands into his pockets. 

“Oh wow, I managed to pull you away from a bunch of sorority girls, huh?” Anna bumped his shoulder with hers. 

“Not exactly a difficult choice,” Hans said with a smile. 

Anna felt some butterflies in her stomach from the compliment. She pursed her lips together to keep herself from smiling too much.

They walked another half a block in silence, but Anna stole a few quick sideways glances at him. At his face, his mouth more specifically. They hadn’t kissed at all last weekend when he slept over. And then the weekend before they didn’t see each other because of mid-semester break. 

As they walked Anna noticed that they were passing by two houses that were situated particularly close together, creating a narrow alley where the yellow glow from the street lights did not reach. In a split second decision, Anna grabbed hold of Hans’s arm and hurried towards it. 

“Where are we going?” Hans asked, allowing himself to be pulled along, but Anna didn’t answer. 

Once they were in the safety of the shadows, Anna wrapped both hands around the back of his neck and kissed him. Hans seemed surprised at first but then quickly melted into the kiss. Stepping forward he pressed her back against the side of the house, one hand on her hip and the other buried in her hair. 

When Anna eventually broke the kiss to come up for air, she let out a small breathy laugh. 

“What was that for?” Hans asked, pressing their foreheads together. 

“I just…I just really wanted to kiss you.” It felt so silly and simple, but it was the truth. 

“Lucky me,” Hans said, massaging his fingers deeper into her hair. 

Anna was suddenly thankful that she had worn jeans that night as the easy access of a dress might have resulted in too strong of a temptation for her to resist. 

She patted at his side. “C’mon, let’s get back to my dorm.”

Hans nodded as he released his hold on her and stepped back. Anna took a breath and smoothed down her hair before checking that the coast was clear. Once she determined the street was empty, they walked back out to the sidewalk and continued on their way. 

{ ~ }

Keeping his hands to himself the rest of the walk back to Castle Hall had been a challenge. But once he was through the window and they were safely behind her locked door, Hans no longer needed to hold back. 

Standing next to her bed, they eagerly kissed. Anna’s hands were running up and down the front of his body and gripping at the fabric of his shirt. He squeezed at her ass and then moved his hands up the curves of her body, finally cupping her cheeks. 

Hans pulled back from the kiss and looked down at Anna as he held her face in his hands. Her skin flushed pink, her pupils blown wide, her lips parted with quicking breaths. It was all there written on her face. Her lust for him. Her desire for him. 

An image flashed quickly through his mind, the look of disgust on Andrea’s face from the night before. Hans pushed it away and kissed Anna again, soft and tender. 

He dropped his hands from her face, grabbing tight onto her waist, and lifted her straight up. Anna let out a surprised but happy squeal and he perched her onto the edge of her bed. Hans took off his shoes before climbing up to join her.

They both knelt on the bed as they kissed and made quick work of each other’s clothes. Hans hadn’t realized just how much he missed this. Kissing her, touching her skin, the feel of her body against his. 

“Lay back,” Hans whispered to her once they were both naked.

He laid his body down on top of hers and kissed at her neck, nipping lightly at her earlobe. He then noticed Anna reaching an arm over the side of the bed, fumbling for the top drawer of her dresser where he knew she kept her condoms. 

“Not yet,” he said, stopping her hand. “First I want to taste you.”

“ _Well_ ,” Anna’s eyes sparkled as she grinned. “I’m not going to say no to that.” 

Hans gave her one last kiss on the lips before slowly kissing his way down her body, stopping to give the nipple of each of her pert breasts special attention. Squeezing at her thick hips he kissed up along her soft thigh, closer and closer to her center. When he reached it he started slow, maintaining eye contact as he gently kissed and lightly licked at her already wet pussy. 

Anna bit at her lip and squirmed, arching her hips upwards, clearly feeling frustrated by his teasing. Hans smirked up at her before giving her what she wanted, his mouth fully on her and his tongue making one long lick up her slit. 

He focused his mouth on her opening then, bringing his thumb up to run circles on her clit. Her sounds of pleasure encouraged him along as he pushed his tongue inside of her. Hans buried his face deeper, sucking and licking, trying to get more of her taste - a heady sweetness with just a bit of salt. 

Switching it up, he moved his tongue to her clit and pressed two fingers into her. Anna moaned out his name as he reached deeper into her slick heat. 

“Shit, right there,” Anna cried as Hans found that spot within her. 

He curled his fingers more and worked his tongue against her, eager to make her come. Her hand pressed firmer on the back of his head and she began to rock her hips up, so he knew she was close. 

“Oh, _Hans_ ,” she panted. “Hans, _yes_ , Hans.”

Feeling her about to fall over the edge and hearing his name in such a sinful tone on her lips had Hans achingly hard. Her legs clamped together tight around his head as she cried out. It was nearly suffocating, but there were worse ways to die than with his face in Anna’s pussy. 

Her legs slowly relaxed and he gave her one last quick kiss down below before sitting up. Hans crawled up the length of her body. Hovering above her, he placed a hand flat on the mattress on either side of her head and looked down at her. 

The expression on her face was one of post orgasmic bliss. Her red hair was splayed wildly on the pillow around her. The string lights that were hung around her bed sparkled in her eyes and cast a dreamy glow across her face and bare chest. 

She was heavenly. 

“Are you just going to keep looking at me?” Anna asked him in a throaty voice. “Or are you going to fuck me?”

_A heavenly look but a wicked mouth_ , Hans thought with some amusement. He gave her a smirk before dipping his head down to kiss her, slow and deep, and reaching a hand over the side of the bed to retrieve a condom. 

{ ~ }

“Should I be striking a pose or something?” Hans asked. 

“No,” Anna said as she worked away on her sketch. “Being still is better.” The two of them were sitting at opposite ends of her bed facing each other. Anna had her knees pulled up to lean her sketchbook against and she had the bedsheet up around her to cover her nakedness. 

“So I shouldn’t do _this?_ ” Hans lifted his arms and flexed, showing off the lean muscles of his bare chest and arms. 

“No,” she said even though she enjoyed the sight. 

“I can Vogue, too.” He then started striking dramatic poses with his hands up by his face. 

“ _No_ ,” she couldn’t help but giggle. “Stop it.”

“Or how about this? _Blue steel_.” Hans narrowed his eyes and puckered his lips.

“If you keep doing that it’s going to take longer.”

“Not sure why you’re taking so long,” Hans said with an impatient slump of his shoulders. “Mine only took like ten seconds.” 

Anna rolled her eyes. 

Earlier when they had gotten onto the topic of her art, Hans had asked if she had drawn anything of him yet. Anna had felt embarrassed to admit that she had in fact sketched a bunch of both him and Kristoff based on pictures she had of them, so she said no. 

Hans had then insisted that they draw portraits of each other, which for him just meant quickly scribbling god knows what in one of the spiral notebooks she used for class. 

“Ok, I’m done.” Anna put her pencil down. “We reveal on the count of three. One. Two. _Three_.” 

They both turned around their books at the same time and Anna burst out with a laugh. Hans had drawn a stick figure that looked like it was done by a five year old. 

“Why do my feet look like V’s?”

“Those are supposed to be high heels,” Hans said looking down at what he drew. “Shoes are a lot harder than I thought they would be.”

“What do you think of mine?” Anna held her sketchbook higher. 

“It’s really good. But...” Hans tilted his head slightly to the side as he looked at her sketch of him. “Is that really what my nose looks like?”

“You’re not allowed to draw me like _that_ and then complain about what I did.” 

“I just didn’t think it was so pointy,” he reached up to touch the tip of it. “Is it?”

“I mean, yeah. It kinda is.”

Hans pouted a bit at that. 

“Oh, come here.” Anna said sweetly as she put her sketchbook down and crawled over to him until their faces were close together. “I like your nose.” She kissed the tip of it lightly. “It’s a good nose.”

“I like your nose, too,” he said and gave her a kiss on hers. 

They stayed like that for a moment, smiling at each other with their faces hovering an inch apart, until Anna remembered what _wouldn’t_ be happening that night. 

“It’s getting late, right?” she said as she sat back and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “You probably need to head out soon?”

“Oh, uh, yeah,” Hans nodded and looked over at the clock. “Yeah, it’s already past two.”

They both hopped down off the bed and started to get dressed, Anna into some pajamas that she had laying on the floor and Hans into the clothes he came in. 

Hans was fiddling with his shoes when he paused and looked up at her. “Anna, I-,” but then he stopped himself. 

“Yes?” she asked. 

“I-,” he swallowed and then returned his attention to his shoes. “I wanted to tell you. Last Sunday morning, when I was leaving, Ryder saw me.”

“W-what?” She wasn’t sure what she had expected him to say, but it definitely wasn’t _that_. 

“I should have told you sooner, I’m sorry.”

“He saw you leaving my room?”

“ _No_ , no not leaving your room,” Hans assured her. “We ran into each other in the stairwell. He obviously knows I don’t live in this dorm so he knows I slept over with _someone_ , but I don’t know if he suspected that it was with you. Did he say anything?”

Anna shook her head. “He didn’t mention it at all.”

“We’re probably fine then.”

“He knows about our first time together,” Anna said as she pulled on her slippers. “He was at the party with me that night. He saw us dancing and he saw us leave together. I told him it was just a one time thing.”

“Ok.”

“I figure it's good for you to know that. In case it ever comes up between you two. It’s best that we… you know.”

_‘That we have our stories straight’_ was what she was going to say, but the words died in her throat. Anna always felt so awkward when the secretness of what they were doing was acknowledged. Hans seemed to understand though as he gave her a nod. They both silently finished getting dressed and Anna walked him down the hall in order to lock the window behind him. 

~

Later that night, Anna laid alone in her bed looking up into the darkness and trying to fall asleep. Being the first one to bring up him leaving was the right choice, Anna assured herself. They had had sex so she knew that Hans wasn’t going to sleep over, but she hadn’t wanted to wait for him to have to say it. Bringing it up first was her way of telling Hans that it was ok. That she didn’t need him to stay, that he wasn’t hurting her feelings by leaving. 

She was asking him to keep this thing secret. To hide and sneak and lie. To stagger departures and meet her down the block and climb through the window and never, ever touch her or kiss her in public (except of course when _she_ decided it was ok to pull him into an alley and kiss him). And Hans did everything she asked without complaint or hesitation or even a hint of jealousy. 

So how could she ask all that from him and then still ask for more? How could she expect more from him? How could she demand more from him? Even if she wanted more from him, asking for it would be so unfair. Hans didn’t have to stay the night, he didn’t owe her that. 

And on the nights that she was with Kristoff, Hans could go be with Andrea or Zach or Eric or any of the other people whose names she didn’t know. Because by what right could she ever want it any other way?


	34. Chapter 34

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Happy (belated) birthday, Kristoff - Part 3

_what are you up to?_

Kristoff stared down at the message on his phone from Hans and then back at his laptop and the books and papers scattered across his desk. He had a coding assignment due tomorrow plus tests in two different classes that Wednesday. With a sigh he typed back an honest response. 

_a fuck ton of school work_

It wasn’t until right after he sent the message that Kristoff realized that it could be read as a blow off. That Hans wasn’t _literally_ asking what Kristoff was doing at that particular moment but was instead asking if he wanted to hang out. Because it was Sunday and, _shit_ , Kristoff had lost track of time but now he saw that it was nearly midday. He panicked and sent Hans two additional messages in quick succession. 

_give me 2 hours?_  
_i want to see you today_

Crap. Now he sounded needy. He drummed his fingers on the edge of his desk until a reply came back. 

_me too, see you then_

Kristoff relaxed and then put his phone down, refocusing on the work in front of him. Ok. Two hours. He could get a lot done in two hours. 

~

Right around the time Kristoff was expecting Hans to show up, he heard a banging on the front door. But it sounded more like someone kicking at it than knocking. 

“Ta-da!” Hans declared as Kristoff opened the door. He was holding out a case of plastic water bottles with both hands - so yes he had for sure been kicking the door - and he had a wide smile on his face. 

“What’s this?” Kristoff asked as Hans walked in. 

“It’s your birthday present! It’s because, wait, hold on,” Hans put the case down on the floor next to the refrigerator. “That thing gets heavy after a while. _Anyway_. It’s because you always get all grumpy and sensitive whenever I take a water bottle out of your fridge. Soooo, I got you a whole big thing of them.”

Kristoff bit down on his cheek to keep himself from smiling. Just like Anna, Hans had disregarded the ‘no presents’ request but went with something cheap yet meaningful. It was sweet, he thought, the little ways the two of them could be so similar. 

A part of him wanted to wrap Hans up in a big hug and kiss him. But another part of him didn’t want to give up such a great opportunity for teasing. 

“Your birthday present to me is water for yourself?” Kristoff asked, trying to keep his voice matter-of-fact. 

“I-,” Hans opened and closed his mouth and then looked from Kristoff to the water bottles and then back to Kristoff. “Ok. Well. When you put it like that it sounds bad. I thought it would be, ya know, thoughtful.”

“It is,” Kristoff assured him with a smile, stepping closer to Hans and bringing a hand up to his face. “I was messing with you. It’s very thoughtful. Thank you.” 

Hans smiled back and leaned his face into the touch. 

The gift was perfect, actually. Perfectly _them_. A reminder of how far they had come, from animosity to friendship to intimacy. And also, in typical Hans fashion, it was a way to get some teasing in at Kristoff’s expense. 

Kristoff brought his other hand up to Hans’s face and dipped his head down to give him a gentle kiss. Hans placed his hands on Kristoff’s chest and then slowly caressed them down his body, finding their way to his waist with his fingers hooking into the belt loops of Kristoff’s jeans. He knew what was on Hans’s mind. 

“I’m kinda starving,” Kristoff said as he broke the kiss, letting his hands come to rest on Hans’s upper arms. “Mind if we go to DQ and pick up some lunch first?”

“Sure,” Hans said, “I’m pretty hungry, too.”

Kristoff allowed his hands to slide down Hans’s arms until they reached his wrists. He looked at Hans’s one hand to find a fresh bandaid wrapped around the finger he had cut Friday night. Slowly he lifted Hans’s hand up to his own face and placed a light kiss to the tip of the finger. Hans snorted at the action. 

“I wanted to do that the other night, but,” Kristoff trailed off, knowing he didn’t actually have to finish the sentence. 

“I get it.” Hans nodded and then a wry smile spread across his face. “I have to say, I kinda liked you being my nurse.” 

“Your _nurse?_ ” 

“Mmmhmm. You interested in ever doing some role play?” 

Kristoff groaned and stepped away from him, walking over to the kitchen counter to grab his keys and wallet. “Shut up and let’s go get some food.”

“Is that a yes or...?”

“It’s a shut up and let’s go get some food.”

Hans snickered but followed Kristoff out the door. 

~

Their lunch sat on the coffee table in Kristoff’s living room, half eaten and forgotten, while Hans was up on Kristoff’s lap, straddling him and kissing him with an ever increasing fervency. 

It had started innocently enough, their typical teasing that then turned into Kristoff stealing some of Hans’s fries and then Hans deciding to seek payback via tickling - which didn’t work out for him quite the way he thought it would. The kissing had just sort of naturally started up from there. 

Hans ran his fingers through Kristoff’s hair as he nipped at his lower lip and then pressed his tongue back into Kristoff’s mouth. Kristoff moved his hands up Hans’s legs and back around to his ass, giving it a squeeze. In response Hans rocked his hips forward against Kristoff’s and it sent a jolt of pleasure through his whole body. 

They were going to need to move this into the bedroom soon. 

In one swift motion, Hans pulled back from the kiss and stripped his shirt off, tossing it to the side. Kristoff sucked in a small breath at the sight. He still wasn’t used to just how amazing Hans’s body was, and that in these moments alone together he could so freely admire it and touch it without fear. Kristoff placed a hand on either side of Hans’s ribs. 

“You’re very annoying. Do you know that?”

“I am?” Hans asked in a soft but amused tone. “What did I do this time?”

“This,” Kristoff said, moving a hand in order to brush the back of his knuckles against the defined abs in front of him. “We both eat the same junk food. We both drink the same amount of beer. But only one of us looks like Brad Pitt in Fight Club with their shirt off.”

“I like the way you look with your shirt off,” Hans said as he gave Kristoff’s shoulders a squeeze. 

Kristoff rolled his eyes. “I wasn’t fishing for compliments. Just explaining why you’re so annoying.”

“I’ve actually cut back a bit on my beer drinking recently,” Hans said with a bit of pride. “I used to go to The Trading Post every Thursday for Thirsty Thursday, but now I spend those nights hitting the books.”

“How responsible of you,” Kristoff said with a small smile, remembering how Hans had once shown up hungover in the library on a Friday morning declaring that the weekend started on Thursday. 

“I don’t really have much choice. I need to get my school work done and for _some_ reason-,” Hans rocked his hips forward again, “I don’t seem to have the same amount of free time on Sunday afternoons as I used to.”

Kristoff smiled wider at the acknowledgment of how routine their time together like this had become. 

“So cutting back one day of drinking gets you this?” he asked as he traced his finger across Hans’s stomach, really just looking for an excuse to touch him some more. 

“No, it’s mostly the cardio. Lots and _lots_ of cardio.”

“Ugh. _Running_ ,” he said with some disgust, remembering the day Hans had forced Kristoff into joining him. 

“That.” Hans leaned his face back in close and dropped his voice down into a seductive tone. “Among other things,” he whispered before their lips met again. 

Kristoff let out a pleasant hum and dropped his hands back down to Hans’s hips, but then Hans broke the kiss and began talking again. 

“I actually have a schedule that I stick to. I run three days a week. One long run and two shorter runs. But then I also do one session of HIIT cardio a week. That stands for high intensity interval training. See that’s really important because…” 

Kristoff stared up at Hans with a bit of disbelief as he continued to talked. Was he really just going to sit there and explain his whole workout routine? Instead of, you know, kissing some more? 

“...and then I make sure to hit the weight room at least two days a week. Because cardio by itself isn’t enough. You _have_ to get some lifting in.” 

Kristoff smiled as an idea came to him. “You know,” he said, sitting up slightly and adjusting his grip on Hans, “I’ve been thinking of doing a bit of lifting myself.” 

“Yeah?” Hans asked with genuine curiosity. “Let me know and we can always go together. The weight room on campus isn’t just for athletes, any student can use it and-, _ah!_ ”

In one swift motion Kristoff leaned forward, circled his arms around Hans’s torso, and stood up from the couch. 

“Woah, woah,” Hans startled, scrambling to grab hold of Kristoff’s shoulders and tightening his legs around his waist. “Holy shit.” 

Kristoff chuckled but then looked up to see the expression on Hans’s face, eyes wide and mouth open. He was worried then that he had made a mistake in picking him up like that. “Hey, you're not going to fall. I’ve got you,” Kristoff reassured him, running a hand up and down his back. 

“Yeah you do,” Hans breathed before ducking his head down and kissing Kristoff hard on the mouth. He dug a hand into Kristoff’s hair and began rocking his hips. 

“Christ,” Kristoff mumbled against his mouth. “If you keep wiggling like that I might actually drop you.”

“No you won’t,” Hans said firmly before kissing him again. 

Kristoff knew it was a real possibility though, so he walked over to the nearest wall. Hans let out a gasp as his back made contact with it but then his mouth was quickly back on Kristoff’s, hot and hungry.

“I guess I should pick you up more often.”

“Please do.” Hans began to pull at Kristoff’s shirt. “Now get this fucking thing off.”

“Hold on tight,” Kristoff said as he pressed his hips harder against Hans to pin him better against the wall. He felt Hans tighten his legs and, as quick as he could, Kristoff pulled his shirt up over his head. Once it was off Kristoff got his hands back under Hans, grabbing at his ass. Hans, meanwhile, instantly had his hands on Kristoff’s chest, palming at his pecs and brushing his thumbs across his nipples. Hans had a thirst in his eyes that caused the heat pooling low in Kristoff’s stomach to intensify. Kristoff dipped his head down so his lips were below Hans’s jaw and he squeezed his ass with both hands as he ground into Hans once more, kissing and nipping at his neck. 

“Oh, fuck _me_ ,” Hans moaned out. 

Kristoff lifted his head to look at Hans’s face. Green eyes dark with desire, flushed skin, lips parted with heavy breaths. God, this face. This attraction, this desire. There was a time when Kristoff thought he had done enough to stomp it out forever. But, _this face_. This face, this man. Hans had managed to find the last embers of that desire somewhere deep inside of Kristoff and he had built them back up into a burning flame. A flame that was coursing through him right then. 

He stretched his neck forward a bit, just enough to brush his nose against Hans’s. “You want me to? You want me to fuck you?”

Hans blinked and then his eyes went wide. “I didn’t-, I wasn’t trying to pressure you just then.”

“I know you weren’t. I want this. I want _you_.” Kristoff could hear the gravel in his own voice as he pressed their foreheads together. “I want to be inside you, Hans. Do you want that?” 

He got his answer in the form of a kiss, Hans claiming his mouth with hunger and need. “Bedroom. Now,” Hans said between kisses, urgently patting him on the shoulder a couple of times, “Go, go, go.”

Kristoff stepped away from the wall and carried Hans into the bedroom, kissing him the whole way there. As they reached the bed Hans released the grip of his legs and Kristoff guided him back to his feet. The two of them began working to get the rest of their clothes off, stealing kisses as much as they could. 

“So I know you’ve never, um, with a guy. But have you ever done anal with a girl?”

“No.” Kristoff shook his head. This was going to be something completely new for him. 

“That’s fine,” Hans said, hopping slightly on one leg as he finished pulling his jeans and boxer-briefs off. “I can walk you through it.”

“It requires walking through?” How different was this really going to be?

“There’s just a bit of prep work needed at the beginning,” Hans said casually. “Lube and a condom?” 

“Right.” Kristoff quickly turned to open up the top drawer of his night stand to retrieve them. 

“Fuck,” Hans said with a shaky laugh.

“What?” Kristoff asked looking back over at him. Hans’s eyes were focused on the box of condoms. 

“Nothing. I mean I _knew_ obviously but,” Hans took the box from Kristoff and inspected the label. “I guess I didn’t realize it was a special condom situation.”

“We’re still good?” 

“Oh yeah, absolutely,” Hans said with a confident grin. He put the box of condoms back down on the nightstand and grabbed the bottle of lube before laying back on the bed. “C’mere.” 

Kristoff obliged, laying down on his side beside Hans. Heeding every instruction from Hans, Kristoff applied some of the lube to his fingers and then reached down between Hans’s legs. One finger and then two and then a certain motion with the two fingers just like _that_. Kristoff could feel Hans relaxing and stretching and he could see the pleasure on his face. Once Hans said he was ready, Kristoff grabbed a condom out of the box. As Kristoff rolled on the condom and applied the lube Hans positioned himself on his back, taking a pillow and putting it under hips. 

Kneeling between Hans’s legs, Kristoff rubbed his hands along the other man’s freckled thighs, more to calm his own nerves than anything else. He felt like a virgin all over again. That same anxiousness and flutter in his chest that he felt the night him and Paige had sex for the first time on the couch down in her parents’ basement. 

“Ready when you are,” Hans said gently. 

Kristoff nodded and then lined himself up at Hans’s entrance. He began to try to push in, but met some resistance. He instantly stopped moving and looked up at Hans’s face. 

“It’s ok,” Hans gave him a small nod. “Keep going.” 

Looking back down, Kristoff pressed forward once more. He felt the same resistance but then it gave way and the head of his cock slipped inside. Kristoff paused for just a moment, took a breath, and then continued to slowly ease himself into Hans. 

About halfway in Kristoff saw Hans wince and felt him clench up around him. 

“You ok?” Kristoff asked, stopping any forward movement. 

“Yep,” he said quickly but his voice sounded a bit strangled. Hans closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. He opened them back up and looked at Kristoff. “Kiss me for a bit?”

Kristoff leaned forward, bracing himself on his forearms, and kissed Hans, slow and sensual. As they kissed, Kristoff began to feel some of the tension melt away out of Hans’s body. Eventually Hans lowered a hand down Kristoff’s back until it was near his hip and then pressed, silently telling Kristoff it was ok to continue. Kristoff began to move his hips forward again, He squeezed his eyes closed as he went, nearly seeing stars at how it felt to fully sheath himself inside of Hans. 

Once all the way in, Kristoff opened his eyes to find Hans looking back up at him, an unguarded expression on his face. They lost a moment to just staring at each other, bodies joined and breaths mingling. 

“You can move,” Hans said, his voice delicate. 

Kristoff went slow at first, only pulling out just a bit before pushing back in. With each thrust he increased his speed and force, egged on by the sounds of pleasure coming from Hans. Kristoff wasn’t sure what he had expected, having sex in this new way for the first time, but he definitely hadn’t expected for it to feel so different. The angle and the friction. Hard muscle beneath him instead of soft curves.

“Shit,” Kristoff breathed. “Hans, you feel so good.”

“So do you. Fuck, you’re so-, _oh_ ,” Hans gasped at one particularly hard thrust then those gorgeous green eyes locked back in on his own. “Just like that, Kris. Fuck me. Fucking give it to me.”

New waves of arousal washed over him at hearing the desperate words from Hans. Kristoff began to pick up the speed and intensity of his thrusts. He kissed Hans hard on the lips before moving across his cheek. Kristoff ran a hand roughly through Hans’s hair, messing it up from how it had been perfectly styled. He then let his hand trail down the side of the other man’s face, taking a moment to appreciate the freckles that Hans had across his nose and cheeks. Next he traced his fingertips along the outline of Hans’s lips before sticking two fingers into his mouth. Hans took the fingers eagerly, swirling his tongue around them. 

Kristoff kissed at his shoulder and then up his neck. He wanted to kiss every inch of Hans, to touch him everywhere, to consume him in the way that Kristoff felt himself being consumed by Hans’s fire. He could feel Hans biting down on the second knuckles of his fingers as Kristoff himself nipped at that sensitive spot on his neck 

He could sense his orgasm beginning to build but, no, it was too soon. Way too soon. He wasn’t ready for this to be over. Kristoff slowed his thrusts down to a stop but stayed deep inside of Hans. Removing his fingers from his mouth he cupped Hans’s cheek in his hand and nuzzled at his neck, taking in his scent. 

“Did you…?” Hans asked cautiously. 

“No, no,” Kristoff said with a shake of his head. “I stopped so I wouldn’t. I just need a sec.”

“Yeah, yeah, of course,” Hans said reassuringly, running a hand up and down Kristoff’s back and giving him a kiss on his temple. 

“I’m going to change position for a bit,” he said as he pushed off the mattress and sat back on his heels. 

Hans lifted his legs higher and Kristoff hooked a hand around the back of each thigh near the knees. After a few adjustments, Kristoff began to work himself back up into a steady rhythm, his hips snapping against the other man’s ass. Pushing forward, he was able to bend Hans’s leg further than he expected he’d be able to, nearly to his shoulders

“Wow. You’re really flexible.”

“I'm a man of many talents,” Hans said with a wink before spreading his legs wider and shifting his hip and, _holy shit_ , Kristoff was suddenly able to fit deeper inside of him. 

“Shit, _Kris_ ,” Hans gasped before biting on his lower lip. He reached a hand down between his legs and began to pump his hand up and down his own cock. 

Locking out his elbows, Kristoff pressed harder on Hans’s thighs and began to move his hips in a quicker intensity. Hot sounds of satisfaction poured from Hans and his eyes bore into Kristoff’s. Seeing Hans like this, every inch of him on display as he moaned and writhed in pleasure from Kristoff fucking him, it was nearly overwhelimg. So much more and so much better than just getting Hans off using his hand or his mouth. Letting one leg drop from his grasp, Kristoff ran a hand up and down the tight muscles of his body. 

“I need you to come first, Hans,” Kristoff told him through heavy breaths. “I want to be inside you when you come. I want to feel it.” 

“Oh, god,” Hans said with a shaky voice and began to jerk himself faster. 

“Let me.” Kristoff brushed Hans’s hand away to wrap his own around the other man’s cock. 

Hans was breathing heavy and his hair was a mess and his green eyes were shining. The flush of his skin traveled all the way from his face down to his chest where a sheen of sweat was making him glisten. It all reminded Kristoff of that day out on the lacrosse field when he first saw Hans with new eyes.

“I’m gun-,” Hans began but his voice faltered. 

“That’s it,” Kristoff said while his hand continued to pump at his cock. “Come for me, Hans. Come for me right now.” 

“Oh, fu- _uh_ -ck, Kris!” Hans called out as he threw his head back and his hole clenched tight around Kristoff. He felt the cock in his hand pulse and watched as thick, white ropes coated Hans’s hard abs and chest. Slowing down the pace of his thrusts, he let Hans ride out the waves of his orgasm. 

Hans’s body eventually relaxed and he let out a long low breath. His eyes focused back in on Kristoff’s and he gave him a nod. 

Kristoff lowered himself onto his elbows then, kissing across Hans’s shoulder as he began to increase his pace back up. He pressed their chests together not caring about the mess, just wanting their bodies as close as possible. Hans clasped his hands around the back of Kristoff’s neck and pulled him down so that Kristoff’s ear was right near his mouth. In a breathy whisper, Hans began to encourage him along with some of the dirtiest things Kristoff had ever heard said. 

Kristoff’s mind swam and he slammed into Hans erratically as he buried his face deeper against his neck. His toes curled and his whole body shuddered as involuntary words and sounds spilled out of him on his fall over the edge. 

Eventually the world spun back into focus and the blood that had been thundering in his ears dissipated away until the only sounds that Kristoff could hear were his and Hans’s deep breathing. He lifted his face to be able to look at Hans.

“Wow,” Kristoff said, his brain still too fuzzy to form a more coherent thought. 

Hans let out a short, hoarse laugh. “Wow indeed.” 

Kristoff lifted his chest off of Hans's and went to shift off of him to take care of the condom when he was reminded of the mess that was now on both of their torsos. 

“Oh.” 

“Yeah.” Hans looked down at it all and then back up at Kristoff. “Shower?”

{ ~ }

Kristoff was standing with his back turned towards the shower head and the water was hitting his shoulders, creating a halo of mist around him. He gave his head a shake and it flipped his wet hair out of his eyes. 

“Ok, your turn,” Kristoff said with a smile and the two of them did a little circle shuffle so that Hans could be the one under the running water. 

The hot water felt relaxing as it washed over him. Hans still had some soreness in his body from their activities, but it was a good kind of ache. 

Before today Hans hadn’t known if or when Kristoff was ever going to be ready to do what they just did. But he _had_ spent a good amount of time thinking about what it would be like. Reality ended up being so much better than anything his mind had tried to conjure up. 

Kristoff’s strong hands nearly bending him in half as he pressed his knees to his shoulders. The way the muscles of arms and chest looked as he hovered above Hans, fucking him hard into the mattress. But also his tenderness. Making sure everything felt good for Hans. The way Kristoff’s finger traced down his cheek and his lips danced across his neck. Kristoff delaying his own orgasm and making sure that Hans found his first. And then there was the way that Kristoff had _looked_ at him, brown eyes filled with heat and awe. 

“I still only have this,” Kristoff said, holding up his bottle of 3-in-1 and snapping Hans out of his thoughts. 

“ _Ugh_ ,” Hans feigned annoyance as he snatched the bottle out of his hands. “Guess it will have to do.” 

Kristoff rolled his eyes. “Sorry, I don’t often have _royalty_ in my shower.” 

Hans went to give him a poke but Kristoff was quick and caught him by the wrist. It only took a light tug on his arm from Kristoff for Hans to step forward, tilting his head back to allow Kristoff’s mouth to meet his own.

~

Once they were all dried and dressed the two of them headed back out into the living room. Hans picked up some now cold fries from the coffee table and flopped down onto the couch. 

“So what are we watching?” 

“There’s baseball,” Kristoff offered with a shrug as he picked up the TV remote. 

“Didn’t we just get done _watching the game?_ ” Hans asked with a waggle of his eyebrows. 

“That joke is getting old.” Kristoff shook his head and then turned on the TV. “And just for that we’re watching the Mets game instead of the Yankees game.”

“Oh booo,” Hans said as he moved closer to Kristoff on the couch. “Maybe I should steal that remote away from you.” 

Kristoff lifted his arm straight up in the air, holding the remote out of his reach, and gave Hans a ‘I’d like to see you try’ face. 

“ _Fine_ ,” Hans said, pretending to be exasperated, and then quickly took the opportunity to slide in next to Kristoff under his raised arm. He let his legs stretch out sideways on the couch and he rested his head back against Kristoff’s chest. 

Kristoff’s body remained very still for a moment before he finally lowered his arm, letting it come to rest around the back of Hans’s shoulders. 

“This ok?” Hans asked. 

“Yeah,” Kristoff said, giving him a quick kiss to the back of the head. “This is nice.” 

{ ~ }

As Kristoff was getting himself ready for bed that night, he stopped next to his dresser and leaned his elbows against the top. His eyes were focused on the picture of the three of them from SpringFest. He had printed it at the photo kiosk in the student union building and it was propped up against the stuffed animals that they had won that night. 

Kristoff rolled a number of things from the past few weeks around in his mind. How over break he missed Anna and Hans way more than he thought he would. How great and how _right_ it felt to be around them again. How the two of them went so far out of their way to do special things for his birthday even though he had hidden it from them. How hot things burned when he was alone with either of them in his bed. How nice it felt to sit in quiet moments with either of them in his arms. 

He picked the picture up and held it in both hands, inspecting it closely. The two of them with their shining smiles and beautiful faces. 

It wasn’t an unfamiliar feeling, this thing that was swirling around in Kristoff’s chest, but it was one he hadn’t felt in a long time. Not to mention it was one he hadn’t ever felt about two people at the same time. 

He couldn’t deny it any longer, though. Kristoff had it bad, real bad, for both of them. 

But his reasons from the beginning of the semester for not wanting anything more were still true. He had to remind himself of that. And he knew they each had their own reasons too. They valued their freedom. And even if he _did_ want something more and one or both of them also _did_ want something more… wouldn’t that just create more problems than it solved? Wouldn’t that just make everything so incredibly messy? And wouldn’t it mean needing to choose? Because something more with either Anna or Hans would mean nothing at all with the other. Kristoff didn’t think he could make that choice. 

So how did this end? It ended when he graduated, he supposed. When he went off to join the real world while Anna and Hans still had years of their college life left to enjoy. 

There was a time when Kristoff couldn’t wait to graduate. When all he wanted to do was buckle down, study hard, and get through these last two years at Arendelle U as quickly and painlessly as possible. Now he found himself wishing for time to stretch out and for this semester to crawl by as slow as possible.


	35. Chapter 35

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anna thinks about her guys.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Timeline wise there is a bit of overlap with this chapter and last chapter. In the last chapter we ended with Kristoff going to bed on Sunday night. Here in this chapter we’re starting out with Anna having dinner on that same Sunday evening. So, a small jump backwards in time and then we continue forward through Sunday night and into Monday.

“It was his birthday! And he didn’t say anything about it. Can you believe that?” Anna shook her head and then took a big bite of her food. 

“Actually, yeah,” Maren said with a nod and a smile. “I can believe Kristoff would do exactly that.” 

Anna laughed. “Yeah I guess I shouldn’t have been so surprised. He can be kind of a quiet guy.” 

Elsa took another bite of food as she listened to Anna’s story. It was Sunday evening and Anna and Ryder were over at her and Maren’s place for their weekly family dinner. 

“Hans and I still wanted to make sure we did something nice for him, so we decided to cook him dinner at his place on Friday night.”

“And how did that go?” Ryder asked, raising an eyebrow before taking a big bite of food. 

“Well,” Anna paused and scrunched up her nose. “We ended up ordering pizza.”

Ryder began to laugh and had to cover his mouth with a hand to keep the food from falling out. 

“Anna,” Elsa put her fork down. “What did you do to that poor guy’s kitchen?” 

“Nothing!” Anna insisted, laughing a bit herself. “His kitchen is fine. And he was super sweet about the whole thing.” There was a small twinkle in her as she said the last part. 

Elsa and Maren made brief eye contact from across the table and they gave each other a smile and a knowing look. This wasn’t the first time Anna had spent a good chunk of Sunday family dinner going on and on like this. Anna would always insist it was just a casual thing between her and Kristoff, but they had been seeing each other for a while now. At least, it was a while compared to what was normal for Anna. And the way Anna’s eyes would always light up when she talked about her Friday nights? Elsa has a feeling it wasn’t going to stay a casual thing for too much longer. 

{ ~ }

It was Anna and Ryder’s turn to do the dishes that night, so they were in the kitchen while Elsa and Maren enjoyed their glasses of wine out on the balcony. They were standing at the sink, Ryder washing and Anna drying. 

“You talked about Kristoff a lot tonight,” Ryder said out of nowhere at one point. 

“No more than usual,” she said, trying not to sound too defensive. 

Ryder gave her a knowing grin. “Exactly my point.”

Anna rolled her eyes. “Are you going to start up again about what the _deal_ is between me and him?”

“ _Yes_. Because you cooked him dinner for his birthday. Excuse me, _tried_ to cook him dinner for his birthday. That’s such a relationship thing to do.”

“Hans and I _both_ cooked him dinner, actually. Because we’re his _friends_. So, you’re wrong.”

“Right,” Ryder scoffed. “But I’m going to go out on a limb and say it was all your idea and Hans just got dragged along into it.”

“Why do you say that?” 

“I mean, he doesn’t really seem the type to come up with something like that on his own.”

Anna furrowed her brow as she looked at Ryder. It wasn’t the first time he had reacted this way to her mentioning Hans. “Do you and Hans not get along?” she asked him. 

Ryder glanced at her and then looked back at the bowl he was washing. “I don’t know. We never really talk.”

“But you’re teammates.” 

“It’s a big team,” he shrugged. “I’m not going to be best friends with every guy.” 

“He’s a good guy,” she insisted. It felt important for some reason, for Ryder to know that about Hans. 

“I believe you,” Ryder said, giving her a sincere look. “I do.” 

They were quiet for a little while. Ryder finished washing a wide baking dish and handed it to Anna for her to dry. 

“Enough talking about me, let’s talk about you,” Anna said, wanting to change the subject. “Did you go talk to Chloe after I left The Trading Post last night?

“I did,” Ryder said, badly trying to contain a smile.

“And?” 

“And…” a real smile broke through on his face. “We hooked up.” 

“Really?” Anna gasped and bounced on the balls of her feet. “Oh my god, that’s so exciting! Tell me everything. From the beginning.”

“Ok, ok,” Ryder smiled wider and Anna could see a light blush on his cheeks. “So when I went to go talk to her, she asked me if I wanted to do some karaoke, so obviously I said yes.”

“Obviously,” Anna agreed as she took a plate from him and began to dry it with the dish cloth she was holding. “What song did you guys sing?”

“That Taylor Swift one with the guy from Panic at the Disco. Her choice.” 

“ _Ooh_ , a duet.” 

“Yeah, it was fun. And then later when we were walking back to campus she kinda like,” he mimed a movement with his hand, “casually brushed her hand against mine. So I took it as maybe a sign, right? That she wanted to hold hands? So I went for it and I was right and we held hands the rest of the walk back.”

“Adorable.” 

“Right?” Ryder was positively beaming as he told the story. “When we got to the dorms she didn’t let go of my hand until we were in her room. And Chloe’s roommate dates that junior and stays at his place off campus on the weekends, so we had the room all to ourselves. For a while we just talked and laughed and stuff while sitting on her bed. Then I asked if I could kiss her and she said yes.”

“You asked her first? _Stop it_ , that’s so cute.” 

“Thank you.” Ryder did a little bow with his head. “Then, well, I won’t give you _all_ the details but then we, _ya know_. And I slept over and we _ya know_ ’ed again in the morning.”

“Aww,” Anna clutched the dish cloth against her chest with both hands and let out a wistful sigh. “I don’t know why, but morning sex always feels so much more _romantic_.”

Ryder laughed at that. 

“Did you and Chloe have a ‘what is this’ talk?” Anna asked. That kind of talk had served her well with both Kristoff and Hans. 

“We did,” Ryder nodded. “We decided we're not going to rush into the boyfriend-girlfriend labels. But we’re also not going to see other people. We’re just going to spend some more time together and stuff and take it from there.”

“That sounds like a good plan. Being on the same page is so important.” 

“Yeah.” Ryder took a deep breath and stopped washing the dish in his hand. “I really like her, Anna. Like I think I really like her a lot. She’s funny and she thinks _I’m_ funny and she’s so nice and _so_ pretty.” 

“She’s great. You both are.” Anna gave Ryder a squeeze on his arm. “I’m so happy for you.” 

~

That night, Anna was alone in her room as she was getting ready to go to bed. As she did every weekend, Anna’s roommate Rebecca had gone home that weekend to spend time with her boyfriend, Robert. Normally Rebecca would be back by Sunday night, but this weekend was a bit different - Robert’s older sister was getting married. The wedding had been on Saturday night, but the groom had a lot of family coming in from out of town so they had events planned all weekend for people. With all of it, Rebecca wouldn’t be getting back to school until Monday morning. 

Anna turned out the lights in her room and climbed up onto her bed, but she didn’t feel even a little bit tired. There was a restlessness in her body, she felt almost wired. Her mind kept drifting back to yesterday morning, sitting on Kristoff’s lap as he sat on the edge of his bed. His hands moving all over her body. 

No. She needed to sleep. 

Anna closed her eyes, hands folded over her stomach, and let out a long low breath as she tried to clear her mind. But then she thought about the way the tiny hairs on the back of her neck stood up when Kristoff had whispered in her ear with that deep voice of his. 

She bit down on her lower lip as her hand slowly traveled southward, slipping below the waistband of her shorts. She was already wet, and she was feeling that familiar tingle and warmth down below, too. 

Fuck it. She had the room to herself tonight and if she wanted to get a good night's sleep then she was going to need to take care of this. 

Leaning over the edge of her bed, Anna opened the top drawer of her dresser and rifled through it until she found her vibrator - a small black wand with a curved and bumpy tip. She shimmied her shorts down her ankles and splayed her knees out sideways. 

After clicking on the vibrator Anna closed her eyes and rested her head on her pillow. She brought both of her hands to her center, using one to rub her vibrator against her clit while she pressed a finger on the other inside her warmth. 

_Kristoff’s hands on her hips. His smile and his warm eyes as he’s beckoning her back to the bed._

_Sitting on Kristoff’s lap. Being in his arms._

_Anna leaning against Kristoff’s broad, solid chest. Letting her head fall back on his shoulder, exposing her neck to his kissing._

_His large hands, strong but gentle, moving up and down her sides. Then coming around to the front of her body and cupping her breasts._

_Kristoff’s hands moving down to her thighs, encouraging them apart. Anna hooking her legs on the outside of his, leaving herself open to him._

_Kristoff’s deep voice whispering in her ear like honey, ‘We want to make you feel so good.’’_

_We._

_Two more hands on her and another mouth kissing up her inner thigh._

Anna bit down on her lower lip as she added another finger inside of herself and continued to rub the vibrator over her clit. 

_Anna looking down to find a pair of green eyes looking back up at her. Hans kneeling on the ground between hers and Kristoff’s legs. Telling her how much he wants to taste her._

_Kristoff whispering sweet words as he holds her tight._

_Hans burying his face deep in her center. His amazing mouth working her up into a frenzy._

_Kristoff kissing on the back and side of her neck, Anna feeling his hard cock pressing against her ass while she’s rocking her body against his._

_Hans moving his mouth off of her to press his fingers into her instead. Her wetness still on his face as he is grinning up at her._

_Kristoff’s calloused fingertips finding her clit and his other hand continuing to squeeze at her breast and pinch her nipple._

_Hans biting down on her thigh as he’s curling his fingers against that sweet spot inside her._

_Both of them having a hand between her legs, encouraging her along._

_‘That’s it, Anna,’ Kristoff’s voice rumbling through her whole body, ‘Come for us, Anna.’_

Anna clamped her legs together and rolled onto her side, pressing her face into her pillow to muffle her cry as the bliss of her orgasm tore through her body. With a long, shaky breath her body relaxed. She clicked off the vibrator and a dead silence fell over the room. 

That’s when the realization hit her. 

Anna clasped a hand over her mouth. Oh god. Oh god, oh fuck. What the fuck did she just do? There had been times when she had done that and thought about Kristoff. And times when she had thought about Hans. But both? Both at the same time? Who thinks like that? 

She picked up the pillow and fully covered her face with it, embarrassment and shame crashing through her mind. So much for a good night’s sleep. 

{ ~ }

After his first class of the morning was over, Kristoff decided to head over to the study lounge that was right there in the engineering building. It was a more convenient place to spend time between classes compared to trekking all the way back to his apartment off campus. It was also much less crowded than other on campus options such as the library or student union. 

As he walked in, he saw Maren sitting at a table doing some school work. Prior to this semester, Kristoff would have likely sought out a seat as far away from any other human as possible. But now? He didn’t think twice before walking over to sit at the same table as her. 

“Hey Maren,” he said as he pulled out a chair to sit. 

She looked up from her books and then smiled when she realized it was him. “Hi Kristoff.”

“Did you have a good weekend?”

“I did, how about you?”

“Very good,” Kristoff smiled as he thought about it. 

Maren folded her arms across her book and leaned forward a bit. “I heard you were brave enough to let Anna take over your kitchen.”

“Oh, yeah. That was a bit of an adventure,” Kristoff said with a small laugh as he took his laptop out of his bag. “She’s mentioned how you and Elsa don’t let her cook at your place. I should have taken that as a hint, I guess.”

“It’s not really her fault though. Elsa was the same way when I met her, so I think their parents just never taught them how.”

“Feels like there’s a story there?” 

“The first time she cooked for us she made spaghetti and meatballs. The spaghetti was fine enough. But the meatballs?” Maren scrunched up her nose and shook her head. “No eggs, no breadcrumbs, no seasons, no nothing. She just took the ground meat out of the packaging, rolled it into balls, and cooked them.”

“She made meatballs that were literally just balls of meat?” Kristoff asked, trying to hold in a laugh. 

“Yeah. It was awful,” Maren said, but there was a fondness in her voice and she smiled as if it were a happy memory. “Once we got a place together off campus we started cooking together a lot and that helped us both get better at it. So give Anna some time. And try the cooking together thing. Trust me. It’s a really nice relationship builder.” 

_Relationship._

Kristoff twisted his pencil around in his fingers. It was one of the ones that Anna had given him. 

“You know, um,” he forced himself to make eye contact with her. “Anna and I, we aren’t really in a relationship like that.” 

“I know, I know,” Maren said in a playful tone, raising her hands up. “You two aren’t using labels or whatever.”

Kristoff nodded and turned his attention to the school work he needed to do. Or at least he tried to. Little what if’s began to pop up in his mind. Ideas of some alternative reality where he was in an actual relationship with Anna. 

Once he had gotten past some of his social awkwardness, Kristoff had found Maren to be a good person to talk with. She had a dry sense of humor that he enjoyed and they had similar tastes in movies. Maren was also a fun person to watch the lacrosse games with. If him and Anna were in an _actual_ relationship then that would make Maren his girlfriend’s sister’s girlfriend. Which was sort of like an unofficial in-law.

“Happy birthday, by the way,” Maren said after some time. 

Kristoff looked back up at her. “Thank you.”

They exchanged smiles before getting back to their respective school work.


	36. Chapter 36

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Let’s get drunk.” - Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter and the next were meant to be one single chapter, but it was getting too long so I’ve decided to split it up. Good news with that though is that most of the next chapter is already written, so hopefully it won’t be too long til the next update.

“Hurry, hurry, hurry. I got to pee,” Anna said as she quickly rushed toward the front of the house, her heels clipping loudly on the cement of the walkway. Kristoff and Hans both broke into a light jog to keep up with her. 

“You should have gone before we left,” Hans teased. 

“Well, I didn’t,” Anna retorted as she grabbed hold of the front door to the theta epsilon house and pushed it open. 

The sounds of the party washed over them as they stepped inside, music and chatter and laughter. To their left was a large living room filled with students. Anna went rushing forward toward the back of the house, clearly already knowing where the bathroom was. 

“We’ll be in here,” Kristoff called after her, gesturing towards the living room. 

She waved hand in acknowledgement but didn’t look back. 

{ ~ }

Thankfully it was early enough in the night and there hadn’t been a long line at the bathroom, so Anna was able to pee quickly. Once she was done, Anna weaved her way through the party in the direction that she assumed Kristoff and Hans would be. She had been to parties here before and knew the layout of the house. As she passed through the dining room her path was suddenly blocked by someone stepping into her way. 

“Oh, excuse me,” Anna said as she went to move around him, but when she looked up at his face she paused in surprise. It was Joe. 

“Hey, Anna,” he said, eyeing her up and down. “Funny running into you.” 

“Yeah,” Anna quickly looked around. “Is, um, is Madison here?” 

“Nah,” Joe waved a hand dismissively. “Sometimes I need a break.”

Anna nodded, not really sure how to respond to that. The last thing she wanted to do was get sucked into a conversation with this guy. 

“I’ve been meaning to tell you,” Joe leaned in closer to her. “I appreciate how you haven’t said anything to Madison about the, ah, _history_ between me and you. She can be a bit uptight about that kind of stuff. She’s not a cool chick like you.”

“That’s not the compliment you think it is,” Anna quickly responded. She had been trying to keep her voice as flat and stiff as possible, but was unable to hold back the bite in her tone. 

“Ooh, ok. I remember that about you,” Joe said with a laugh as he gave her a wink. “That little fire, that little snap. That’s why you were such a good time.”

God, this guy was a real piece of shit. How had she been so fooled by him that one night last semester? She had thought he was cute and funny and nice. Was she really that bad a judge of character? The thought of it made her stomach roll. 

“I should be getting back to my friends.” She went to walk past him, but Joe quickly moved to block her path. 

“What’s the rush?” There was a sly smile on his face, as if there were some joke that only he was in on. 

Anna sized up her situation. There were a couple of other people in the dining room with them. They were also in full view of the packed living room. And across the crowd Anna could see Kristoff and Hans leaning up against the far wall, talking to each other. 

If she wanted to, Anna could raise her voice and cause a scene, get the attention of everyone around them as well as Kristoff and Hans. Shame Joe in front of a big crowd and force him to slink away with his tail between his legs. But she really didn’t want to start up any drama if she didn’t need to. Best to just act polite, play dumb to what Joe was trying to do, and slip away from him as quickly and painlessly as possible. 

“Come on, let’s go get some drinks. Hang out a bit.” Joe went to go reach for her elbow but Anna took a step back. 

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

He gave her an annoyed look. “Why not?”

“Aren’t you forgetting about Madison? You know, _your girlfriend?_ ” 

“She doesn’t need to know.”

Anna took a breath. He clearly wasn’t getting the hint, so she’d need to be more blunt. “Joe, let me be perfectly clear. Even if you weren’t dating one of my best friends I would still have no interest in sleeping with you again. So, no thank you, and I’m going to go.” She went to take a step past him but Joe reached a hand up and closed it around her forearm. 

“You’re really just going to walk away like that?” he asked, a bit of anger forming in his face. 

“I _said_ no thank you.” She went to pull her arm out of his grasp but Joe only tightened his hold. 

Joe brought his face close to her and sneered. “You forget that I know the kind of girl you are.” 

Anna narrowed her eyes. She was done playing polite. 

{ ~ } 

“Should we get drinks now?” Kristoff asked. “Or should we wait until Anna gets back?”

Him and Hans were right where they had been since they got to the party, leaning up against a wall in the living room. 

“She should be back soon enough,” Hans said, turning his head to look out across the crowded party. 

Kristoff watched his profile. It still caught him off guard sometimes, just how handsome Hans was. 

Hans’s expression, which had been neutral, suddenly changed, his eyes going wide and his mouth dropped open. 

“ _Anna_ ,” he gasped, fear in his voice. 

Kristoff quickly looked in the direction that Hans was. Across the party, and in the dining room, he saw Anna. There was a guy holding tight onto her arm and she was grimacing as she tried to pull it free. A primal kind of anger seared its way through his body as he pressed off the wall and began moving forward.

The next few moments passed in a blur. Kristoff pushing his way through the crowded living room with his eyes fixed on Anna. Hans right on his heels, a hand on his back letting him know that he was there. Anna trying to pull her arm away again, and then shouting something at the guy. Murmurs from people around them suddenly noticing the commotion. 

Finally they were through the crowd, into the dining room and just a couple of steps away from Anna. But, just at that exact moment, Anna drove her knee up, hitting the guy hard between the legs. Kristoff and Hans both stopped short, stunned, as the guy dropped his hold on Anna’s arm and stumbled back, doubled over. 

“Oh fuck,” he said with a strangled groan as his arms folded over his middle. 

“Next time learn what no thank you means!” Anna shouted at him. 

Kristoff’s mouth hung open as he watched the scene. 

When Anna noticed Kristoff and Hans standing there she gave them a meek half-smile. “Hey, guys.”

It was enough to break him from the shock of the moment and Kristoff hurried over to Anna’s side. 

“Are you ok?” he asked her. 

“Yeah,” she nodded. “I’m fine. Thank you.” Anna rubbed at her forearm. The skin was red from where the guy had grabbed hold of her. 

Kristoff looked up to see Hans staring at Anna’s arm, a fire growing in his green eyes that matched what Kristoff was feeling. The guy who had put the marks there, still recovering from Anna’s defensive move, coughed a few times as he straightened himself up. His eyes landed on Anna and his face contorted in contempt. 

“Fuck you, you dumb whore,” he spat. 

Hans moved like a flash, grabbing hold of the front of the guy’s shirt with both hands. Despite the guy out sizing him, Hans was easily able to whip him around and slam his back hard into the nearest wall. The action drew a few gasps from the crowd around them. 

“What the _fuck_ did you say?” Hans snarled, his face turning red. 

The guy grabbed onto Hans’s wrists and tried to wriggle free from his hold. “Get off of me you little shit, before I knock your fucking teeth out.”

The threat caused a fresh swell of anger to rise inside of Kristoff. He strode over to them and scowled down at the guy from over Hans’s shoulder. The guy needed to tilt his head back in order to look up and make eye contact with Kristoff. As he did, his face dropped and he stopped trying to free himself from Hans. 

“What the matter? Got nothing to say to _me?_ ” Kristoff jabbed a finger into the guy’s shoulder. “The threats and insults don’t come as easy against someone bigger than you, huh?” 

“Guys, don’t,” Anna said from behind them. “It’s over, let’s just go.”

Hans dropped his hold on the guy but continued to stare him down for a moment before stepping away. Kristoff also gave him one last look before moving back to Anna. He placed a reassuring hand on the small of her back as they began to head towards the front door of the house. As they walked through the party, Kristoff saw how nearly every eye was on them. 

“Oh god,” Anna ran a hand down the side of her face once they got out to the sidewalk. “I can’t believe that just happened.” 

A line appeared between her brows as she looked down at the ground, her mouth in a tight line. Kristoff worried then that perhaps him and Hans had taken things too far. 

“We didn’t mean to cause a scene back there,” he told her, trying to sound apologetic. “We were just worried for you.”

“No, that’s not it. I appreciate what you guys did, really. Thank you. It’s just _that_ ,” she gestured back in the direction of the house, “is going to cause so much drama.”

“Drama?” Kristoff asked. 

“It’s complicated.” Anna fiddled with the ends of her hair in the way she always did when she was nervous. 

Hans looked between Anna and the house. “Did you _know_ that guy?”

“Yeah. He’s Madison’s boyfriend.” 

It took a moment for recognition of the name to click in Kristoff’s brain. “Madison as in your friend who lives on your floor? The one we played flip cup with at the delta party?”

Anna nodded but didn’t say anything further as she began to walk down the sidewalk. Hans and Kristoff fell in step on either side of her. The three of them walked in silence for a bit without any real destination. 

“I know where there is another party happening tonight, at omega pi,” Hans said after some time. “We can go there, get a drink, and, if you want to, we can talk about it.”

“Yes,” Anna let out a breath and her shoulders seemed to relax some. “Yes, that sounds good.” 

{ ~ }

When they got to the party at omega pi, Hans got them cups of beers from the keg in the kitchen and Anna and Kristoff found an open couch in a relatively quiet part of the house for them to sit and talk. 

Anna told them the whole story. How last semester she met a guy named Joe and how they had one forgettable night together. And then how her friend Madison recently started seeing a guy named Joe. Anna said how she had no idea that the Joe that Madison was dating was the same Joe until the moment Madison went to introduce them, and how Joe acted like he had never met Anna before in his life. She said that she didn’t know what to do in the moment, so she just went along with pretending they didn’t know each other. But Anna also told them how Joe had said and done things since then that led her to realize not only did Joe remember her, he was still interested in her. All culminating in his aggressive behavior tonight. 

“I’ve avoided saying anything to Madison because I was hoping she would figure out how awful he was on her own and then dump him and then I’d never have to think about him ever again. But now, after all this? He’s so much worse than I thought. I have to tell Madison. I have to warn her.” Anna groaned and leaned forward, putting an elbow on her knee and burying her face in her hand. “I made a huge mistake in not saying something right away, didn’t I?”

“No, it’s not your fault” Kristoff rubbed a hand across her shoulders. “You got caught off guard and it was an awkward situation. It’s hard to know the right thing to do.”

“The only bad guy in this situation is that asshole Joe,” Hans said firmly. 

The idea of Anna being with a guy like Joe, it made Hans’s blood boil. He was now wishing that he had punched the piece of shit in the face when he had the chance. It wasn’t a jealousy thing, though. It definitely wasn’t. He never got jealous about Anna being with Kristoff. The difference was that Kristoff was a good guy, the kind of guy that deserved to be with Anna. 

“I’m sorry guys,” Anna said. “I feel like I put a real damper on the night.”

“First of all, and once again, it wasn’t your fault,” Kristoff assured her. “And second, the night isn’t ruined.” 

“Yeah, it’s still early,” Hans added. “We can do whatever you want the rest of the night. Your choice.”

Anna sat back against the couch and pursed her lips together in thought. “Let’s get drunk,” she said. 

“What?” Kristoff tilted his head. 

“Let’s get drunk,” she repeated. “Tonight. All three of us. Together. We’ve never done that before. And we all just went through a stressful moment. And I’m going to have to have a difficult conversation with Madison soon that I’d rather not think about right now. So... why not?”

“I’m in,” Hans said with a shrug. Anna was right, the three of them had never let loose like that before. Might as well turn an almost ruined night into a banger. 

“Wait, hold on,” Kristoff held up a hand, “How drunk are we talking? Because that one time you got really drunk we had to carry you back to my apartment.” 

“Ok, so not _that_ drunk,” Anna said. “But, like, _mostly_ drunk. Still able to walk home drunk.”

Kristoff seemed to think that over, but a commotion behind them caught their attention. A group of guys wearing omega pi shirts were carrying one of those big, five gallon yellow and red water coolers through the party and towards the kitchen. As they went people were cheering and chanting “Jun-gle juice! Jun-gle juice!” 

“It’s a sign!” Anna declared, her eyes going wide. 

Kristoff looked back at them confused. “Jungle juice?”

{ ~ }

Kristoff stared down at the strange concoction in his cup. Anna and Hans had already started to drink theirs, but he was still a bit unsure

“What’s in this stuff?” he asked them. 

“Everything,” Anna said simply. 

Kristoff cocked an eyebrow at her. “You understand how that’s not a reassuring answer, right?” 

Anna just smiled in return and took another drink from her cup.

“It smells like,” Kristoff took a whiff of it, “I don’t even know how to describe how it smells.”

“It smells like bad choices and regret,” Hans said. He pushed Kristoff’s cup closer to his face. “Now drink up.”

Kristoff took a gulp and then winced at the flavor. Sharp and heavy and a bit too sweet. There were multiple types of liquor in there, he was sure. And beer too maybe? All mixed with what seemed to be orange soda. Or maybe juice. It was called jungle _juice_ after all. 

“Good?” Anna asked.

“No, not really. But whatever works.” He smiled back at her and took another sip. 

{ ~ }

By the time they were on their second cup of jungle juice, the three of them had decided to play a drinking game. They just needed to decide _which_ drinking game to play. 

“We don’t have the right number of people for Flip Cup or Beer Pong,” Kristoff noted. 

“True,” Hans agreed. “And we don’t have a deck of cards, so anything like Kings or Ride the Bus is out too.”

“We can play Never Have I Ever,” Anna offered as she pulled out her phone. “I have an app for it so we don’t even have to come up with our prompts.”

“Oh, ah,” Kristoff winced and Hans could see the worry on his face. “I don’t know. I’m not sure I want to play that.” 

“What kind of scandalous stuff have you done that makes you too scared to play Never Have I Ever?” Anna asked him, a mischievous grin on her face. 

Obviously she was joking, but Hans knew the exact kind of stuff Kristoff was scared of with that game. _‘Never have I ever kissed someone of the same gender.’ ‘Never have I ever sucked dick.’_ Of course Kristoff could always lie, but Hans knew he had a bad poker face and that the whole thing would make him feel uncomfortable. 

“I’m not so keen on that game either,” Hans said casually. “You got any other games?”

“Yeah, a bunch.” Anna turned her phone so he could see. 

“I love how you have a whole section of your phone dedicated to apps for drinking games.” Hans scanned through the options. “Let’s play Most Likely To.” 

“I don’t think I know that one,” Kristoff said. 

“I read off a prompt that goes ‘most likely to _dot dot dot_ ’ and then you point to the person you think it applies to. Whoever is the consensus choice has to drink.”

Kristoff smiled. “Yeah, that sounds like fun. Let’s do that one.”

Anna tapped the screen and read off the first prompt. “Most likely to break a bone.”

“That’s going to be you, miss clumsy,” Hans said as both him and Kristoff pointed at her. 

“Fine,” Anna said with a smile as she took a drink and then tapped the phone screen again. “Most likely to have the highest body count.” 

Anna pointed at Hans right away and he smiled and then pointed at himself as well. Kristoff, though, looked a bit confused. 

“Like…” Kristoff glanced back and forth between the two of them. “Like, murder?”

Both Anna and Hans burst out laughing. Hans was starting to feel a warmth in his cheeks and he knew the jungle juice was already starting to give them all a buzz by now. 

“No, no,” Hans said, as he caught his breath. “Like, ah, notches on a bed post.” 

“Oh,” Kristoff’s face relaxed and pointed at Hans as well. “Yeah, that’s gunna be you.”

“Thank you,” Hans said before taking a drink. “By the way, if we _were_ talking murder the correct answer would be Anna.”

“Oh, absolutely,” Kristoff agreed. 

Anna snorted and shook her head before tapping the screen for the next prompt. “Most likely to be a teacher’s pet.”

Anna and Hans both instantly pointed at Kristoff. 

“ _Me?_ ” 

“Yes, _you_ ,” Anna said, giving him a poke. “You were the kid who asked for extra homework, just admit it.”

“Do I still have to drink if I contest the results?”

“Yes,” Hans insisted. “You’re outnumbered two to one so you drink.”

“Fine,” Kristoff grumbled before taking a gulp of his jungle juice. 

Anna tapped the phone again. “Most likely to be the first one to die in a zombie apocalypse.”

No one pointed at anyone right away, all three of them looking at each other in thought. 

“This one is trickier,” Kristoff said eventually. “But I feel like it’s definitely one of you two and not me.”

“Ok, _maybe_ ,” Anna said hesitantly, “But you wouldn’t let either of us get eaten by a zombie, so I feel like the answer is no one.” 

“Yeah, that’s true,” Kristoff cracked a wide smile.

“Agreed,” Hans nodded, trying to hold in his laughter. “We stick together and no one dies in the zombie apocalypse, so no one drink this round. Next.”

“Most likely to go to a party in sweatpants.”

Anna and Hans both pointed at Kristoff. 

“No! _No._ ” Kristoff held up a finger, clearly trying to sound serious even though his eyes were sparkling with delight. “I would never because you two would never let me. I protect you two from zombies and you two make sure I’m dressed properly. That’s the deal.”

All three of them devolved into fits of laughter and giggles at that point, the alcohol clearly showing its effects. 

“Ok, ok,” Anna said, holding up her cup and trying to catch her breath. “Let’s all drink to make up for these last two rounds being busts.”

The three of them did a _cheers_ motions with their cups and then all took big swigs. 

{ ~ }

“I’m telling you-,”

“ _No!_ ” Anna interrupted Hans. 

“ _Yes._ I’m _telling_ you,” he repeated with more urgency. 

They were on their fourth cup of jungle juice and Anna and Hans were arguing about… something. Kristoff had lost the thread of the conversation. He still wasn’t sure the exact contents of this jungle juice stuff, but it must be strong if he was feeling this drunk already. 

“I’m telling you!” Hans reiterated. “The coffee at the Starbucks in the student union is better than the coffee at the Starbucks in the library.” 

“No. No.” Anna banged a hand against the wall with each word for emphasis. “It’s. The. Same. Coffee.” 

Kristoff couldn’t help but smile as he watched the exchange. As Anna and Hans got drunker and drunker, their downstate accents got thicker and thicker. And the fact that they kept saying ‘coffee’ of all words just made it funnier. 

“ _CAW_ -fee,” Kristoff said loudly, exaggerating the word dramatically to mimic them. 

Hans and Anna stopped talking and looked at him confused. Their similar expressions made him start to laugh. 

“What was _that?_ ” Anna asked. 

“That’s how you guys sound with your accents.”

“I don’t have an accent,” Hans declared, sounding offended. 

“Yes you do,” Kristoff said in a sing-song voice as he pointed a finger at him. “And yours is even worse than hers.”

Hans swatted away his finger and gave him a pout. “You lie.”

“Prove it then, say ‘coffee’ normally.” 

Straightening up his shoulders, Hans put a serious look on his face. “Coffee,” he said slowly, clearly trying to sound as formal and proper as possible, but his accent still bled through

“Caw-fee tawk, caw-fee tawk, caw-fee tawk,” Kristoff teased. 

Hans went to give Kristoff a jab in the ribs but he jumped away from the motion. Anna started laughing so hard that she had to lean herself up against the wall. Kristoff knew he was going to be regretting the jungle juice in the morning, but seeing Anna this happy? Compared to how worried she had been earlier in the night? Whatever hangover was to come would be worth it. 

{ ~ }

Anna felt a pleasant warm fuzziness in her brain, and she could tell by the woozy looks of Hans and Kristoff’s faces that they were just as drunk as her. The water cooler of jungle juice was empty now though, so they were trying to strategize how to keep their buzzes going.

“Aren’t we drunk enough already to just be able to stop drinking?” Kristoff asked. 

“Nooo,” Anna said, leaning into him a bit to keep her balance. “If we stop drinking then we start to sober up and then we’re going to start to feel shitty.” She threw an arm up into the air. “The night is still young!” 

“Keg stands!” Hans pointed at the keg in the kitchen. “We do keg stands!”

“Oof, no,” Kristoff shook his head. “If I try to go upside down right now all that jungle juice is going to come right back up.”

“Well. We have to engage in some additional form of irrespensi-irresponsible drinking,” Hans said, slurring his words slightly. 

Anna watched as a lopsided grin spread across Kristoff’s face. “I have an idea. Hold on.” 

Kristoff looked around and then slowly crept over to the refrigerator as if he were on a secret mission. Cracking the door open just a bit, Kristof peered in and then reached in an arm. He pulled out three cans of beer and speed walked back over to them. 

“Hurry, into the backyard,” he shout-whispered and the three rushed to the kitchen door. Anna giggled as they shuffled out onto the grass, the cool night air feeling good against her skin. 

“Why did we need to come out here?” Anna asked. 

“We’re shotgunning these,” Kristoff said as he handed a beer each to Anna and Hans. 

“Yes!” Hans exclaimed, doing a little excited hop, at the same time that Anna asked, “Wait, what?”

“Anna, don’t question this. This is an historic moment.” Hans put an arm around her shoulders and then pointed at Kristoff. “This is the first time ever that Kristoff is the one coming up with the stupid idea. We need to savor this.”

Kristoff rolled his eyes. “Shut up and get your keys out.” 

“Why our keys?” Anna asked but began to dig through her purse to find them anyway.

“You stab the side of the can with the key to create a hole, you put your mouth on the hole and drink the beer,” Hans explained, pulling his keys from his pocket. 

“Yes, and then as you drink you pop the top of the can so it all flows out good,” Kristoff added. He took a deep breath. “I haven’t done this in a while, but here we go. One, two, _three!_ ”

They all punctured their cans and quickly put them to their mouths. Beer came rushing into Anna’s mouth and she had to start quickly gulping it down. Anna did her best to keep an eye on Kristoff and Hans to follow what they were doing. She saw them pop the top of their cans, so she blindly fumbled to do the same for hers. When she did it only served to make the beer gush into her mouth faster. 

Anna got about a quarter of the way through the beer before the heavy stream became too much to handle. She pulled her mouth away from the can, beer spraying a bit on her clothes but mostly across the grass in front of her. 

She noticed Hans struggling a bit too, squeezing his eyes tight in concentration. He reluctantly needed to pull his mouth away though, gasping for air as the rest of his beer sputtered out onto the ground. 

Kristoff, meanwhile, didn’t seem to be having trouble at all, easily gulping it all down. Once his beer was finished, he raised his arms in triumph. Kristoff then crushed the can in his large hand and let out a long, deep burp. 

“ _Damn_ ,” Hans said, sounding impressed. 

“Bravo!” Anna applauded. “I can’t believe I had no idea that you could do that. It’s, like, your special secret talent. Oh!” she gasped as an idea came to her. “We should show each other our special secret talents!”

“What?” Kristoff blinked. 

“I can do a handstand!” she yelled before rushing over to the fence, planting her hands on the ground, and pushing off with her feet. Anna got herself fully up into the handstand, allowing her legs to lean against the fence for some balance. 

“Wow,” Hans tilted his head dramatically to the side so that it was almost upside down as he looked at her. 

“Yeah,” Kristof added. “Good thing you didn’t wear a dress tonight.” 

That made Anna start to crack up with laughter, causing her arms to give out as she tumbled to the ground.

“Anna!” Kristoff and Hans both called out her name as they came rushing over to her.

“Are you ok?” Kristoff asked. 

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” she gasped through her laughter. She took hold of each of their hands as they helped her to her feet. 

“Hans,” Anna turned to him and clasped her hands onto his upper arms, “Do you have a special secret super whatever talent?”

A smirk appeared on his face. “I do. But we have to go to The Trading Post for me to show it to you.”

“Why there?” Kristoff asked. 

“If I told you then it wouldn’t be a secret, now would it?” 

“Ok! Yes! I’m so excited. Let’s go!” Anna said before turning and breaking into a run. 

“Wait up,” Kristoff called after her.

As Anna turned the corner from the backyard to the side of the house, her eyes landed on a familiar face that she hadn’t seen in a while. She paused in surprise for a moment and then smiled and rushed forward again, arms open wide. “Oh my _god!_ Eric!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A couple of notes for this chapter:
> 
> First, I’ve tried to always show (mostly) responsible drinking in this story. But, it is fiction and they are in college, so I figured our trio has earned at least one drunken, silly night. With that said, in real life please always drink responsibly. If you ever do plan to get intoxicated, do it with people you trust and know what your limits are. 
> 
> Also, I probably should have made a note about this earlier in the story, but I want to clarify that whenever I reference a fraternity or sorority by name I’m never actually trying to reference a real life organization. I just pull up the Greek alphabet and grab one or two random letters. 
> 
> And finally, we are now over the 150,000 word mark! Woo! Thanks again to all of you who have been so supportive and encouraging. 
> 
> Next up: The rest of Anna, Hans, and Kristoff’s drunken night.


	37. Chapter 37

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Let’s get drunk.” - Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to Rhianne and Liv for helping me out on this chapter!

“Ok! Yes! I’m so excited. Let’s go!” Anna said before turning and running away from them. 

“Wait up,” Kristoff called after her, but she didn’t slow down as she disappeared around the side of the house. 

Kristoff and Hans exchanged smiles before beginning after her. They then heard her yell out in an excited voice, “Oh my god! Eric!”

Hans froze. Eric? Like, _Eric_ Eric? Like his Eric? Well, he wasn’t _his_ Eric, of course. 

Kristoff gave Hans a curious look over his shoulder when he realized that he had stopped walking. Hans took a breath and then moved forward again, catching up to Kristoff. 

As they came around the side of the house Hans saw Anna with her arms around Eric, having pulled him into a big hug. There were two girls with him who were looking confused, but Eric had an amused smile on his face as he hugged Anna back. The smile faded somewhat when he looked up and made eye contact with Hans. 

Eric and his friends looked completely sober and just starting out their night and it made Hans feel hyper aware of just how drunk the three of them must look. 

“It’s been forever since we saw you,” Anna said, her face full of excitement as she released Eric from the hug. 

“Yeah, long time no see.” Eric was answering Anna but eyes stayed on Hans as he spoke. 

Hans then remembered the way they had left things and Eric’s words the last time they were together. _‘You have my number. Don’t make me wait so long for the next time.’_ All Hans had given him in return was a _‘I’ll see you around’_ before walking out the door. Hans hadn’t seen him since. Hadn’t called him, hadn’t texted him. 

“Well, ah,” Eric began to speak again after some silence. “Caitlin, Hailey, this is Anna, Hans, and Kristoff.”

They all said their polite hellos except for one of the girls, either Caitlin or Hailey he wasn’t sure which was which, whose eyebrows went up in surprise. 

“Wait, Hans?” she asked as she looked at Eric. “ _This_ is Hans?”

“Yes,” Eric said quietly as he gave the girl a sharp look. Hans could see a small blush on his cheeks. Obviously Eric had told his friends about him. 

“I see my reputation processes me. Wait no,” Hans shook his head. Fuck he was feeling drunk. “What’s the word I’m thinking of?”

“Precedes?” Kristoff offered. 

“Yes!” Hans snapped his fingers at Kristoff and then smiled at the girls. “My reputation _precedes_ me.”

The two girls looked back at Hans with furrowed brows, completely unimpressed with him. One was about to say something when Eric cut her off. 

“Could you, um,” Eric shifted uncomfortably as he looked at his friends, “How about I meet you two inside?”

They nodded and gave Hans one last look before walking into the backyard. Anna and Kristoff watched them go and then looked at Hans.

“We’ll give you a minute,” Anna took hold of Kristoff’s arm and began to pull him away. 

“Yeah,” Kristoff added “We’ll wait for you out front.”

“Thanks,” Hans nodded at them. “I’ll be right there.”

Once they were alone Eric crossed his arms and fixed Hans with a stare, almost daring him to speak first. The silence between them was filled with the distant sounds of the party happening inside. The light streaming out from the windows was falling across Eric’s face, highlighting his defined jaw and cheekbone. Eric had a really nice face. 

As Hans looked at his lips he tried to remember the last time he had kissed someone besides Anna or Kristoff, but drew a blank. Had it been weeks? Not since before mid-semester break? Could that be? No. It was the alcohol, it was affecting his memory. Because that’s not how Hans was. 

“You look good tonight,” Hans said finally, trying to give Eric as charming a smile as he could manage. 

“And you look drunk tonight,” Eric quickly responded. 

“Yeah just a bit,” Hans moved closer to him. “Hey, what do you say we go back behind those bushes and have ourselves a little quickie?”

“Hans,” Eric sighed and shook his head. “I’m not going to fuck you in a bush.”

“Not _in_ the bush, _behind_ the bush. Big difference.”

That made Eric crack a smile. Eric had a really nice smile. 

“You can be completely ridiculous sometimes, did you know that?” 

“I’ve been told.” Hans said as he moved even closer. “C’mon, it’ll be fun.”

“You’re drunk Hans,” Eric said firmly. 

“Only a little,” Hans responded with a wink.

Eric uncrossed his arms and let his hands settle on Hans’s hips, pulling him closer. “Why do you always have such a one track mind?”

“How can I not when you’re standing there looking like that?” His own hands found their way to Eric’s waist. “Did I tell you that you look good tonight?”

“Yes.”

“Well, it’s worth repeating,” Hans dipped his head down and pressed his lips softly against the pulse point of Eric’s neck. Eric inhaled sharply and tightened his hold on Hans. “You always look so good,” Hans whispered against his skin as he trailed a few more kisses up his neck. 

“Hans,” Eric said, his voice wavering slightly. “It’s not happening tonight.”

Hans lifted his head back up to look at Eric. “Ok, no bush sex. That's fine. But how about a kiss?”

“Oh my god.” Eric rolled his eyes. 

“Give me one kiss right now as a rain check,” Hans moved a hand up and rested it on Eric’s chest. “Then, on a night I’m sober, I can text you and we’ll spend some real time together.”

“Oh, you _can_ text me?” Eric gave him an incredulous look. “Because you never have before.” 

“I’m sorry,” Hans said with a pout. 

“No you’re not.”

“I _promise_ I’ll text you. Have I ever broken a promise to you before?”

A touch of sadness passed across Eric’s face. “You’ve never made me any promises to me before.”

“Well then I’ve also never broken any, right?” Hans knew he was acting like a messy, desperate brat but he was way too drunk to care. And getting a kiss right now felt important. 

“You,” he said with a shake of his head as he brought a hand up Hans’s cheek. Eric’s sky blue eyes danced across his face as he ran his thumb along the line of Hans’s bottom lip. Leaning in, Eric pressed their lips together, brief and delicate. 

As he broke the kiss, Eric kept their mouths hovered close together a moment. Hans was about to say something when suddenly Eric moved. He tightened his hold on Hans, turning him around, and started walking him backwards. Hans stumbled slightly at the unexpected movements, but then his back was slamming into the side of the house and Eric’s lips were crashing onto his again in a searing kiss. Hans tilted his head to the side and pressed his tongue into Eric’s mouth, deepening the kiss, as Eric clasped a hand around the nape of his neck. 

It was Eric who, once again, broke the kiss. He sucking in a deep breath as his eye bore into Hans. 

“Rethinking that bush?” Hans asked with a smirk. 

“No.” Eric dropped his hold on Hans and stepped back from him. “You better text me,” he said firmly before walking off towards the back of the house and disappeared from sight. 

Hans took a deep breath, still leaning up against the house where Eric had put him. He got the kiss he wanted, but felt nothing. It was the alcohol. It was numbing his senses. 

He remembered Anna and Kristoff then, still out front waiting for him. At least Hans hoped they still were. He pushed off and hurried off to the front of the house. As he came out to the front yard he saw Anna and Kristoff standing out on the sidewalk. They actually did wait. When they spotted him they each gave him wide smiles.

“Ready to go?” he said as he approached them. “I still have to show you guys my secret talent.” 

“Yes, _we’re_ ready” Anna answered with a pointed tone even though she was smiling. “You’re the one that kept us waiting.” 

“Sorry, sorry,” he smiled back at her and held his hands up defensively as the three of them started to walk. “Don’t want to get on your bad side. We know how that ends.” Hans quickly jabbed his knee into the air. “I said no thank you!” he called out in a high pitched voice. 

“Nooo,” Anna laughed, giving him a light shove on the shoulder. “Don’t make fun of me!”

“I’m not! What you did was awesome,” Hans did a little sideways hop so he could face her while still moving down the sidewalk. “Kristoff and I were like _running_ across the party thinking we needed to save you and then _BAM!_ Nut shot!”

Kristoff chuckled. “Yeah, that was kinda badass.” 

“ _Super_ badass.” Hans said as he turned to face forward again. 

“Thanks guys,” Anna looped an arm in the crook of each of theirs as they walked. “And you two were so sweet to come riding to my rescue.”

“Anytime,” Kristoff said. “We’ve got each other’s backs.”

{ ~ }

They all took deep breaths and pretended as best they could to be sober as they showed their IDs to the doorman at The Trading Post. Luckily Hans and Anna’s IDs once again worked and the three of them got in with no problems. 

“Drinks?” Hans asked them as they saddled up to the bar. 

“Cranberry vodka,” Anna said eagerly. 

“Uh, just a beer,” Kristoff added, still unsure as to why they were there. 

Hans waived down a bartender and made their order. “A cranberry vodka, a Budweiser, and a mai tai.”

“I thought we were here to see your special talent,” Kristoff said. 

“We are,” Hans responded, leaning back against the bar. “That’s why I ordered a mai tai.”

“Your special talent is ordering a mai tai?”

“Cool ya tits,” Hans said, giving him a pat on the chest. 

Anna giggled at that and Kristoff had to laugh too. 

The bartender came back with their drinks. Hans handed Anna and Kristoff theirs and then he lifted his up in toast. Kristoff clinked his beer bottle to their glasses and then drank. 

“Ok,” Hans said after taking a sip. “Special secret talent time.” He dug a finger into his drink and fished out the cherry. Hans held it up in the air to show both of them and then popped it into his mouth, stem and all. 

Anna’s eyes went wide. “Ohhhh myyyy _god_.”

“What? What’s oh my god?” Kristoff asked. He didn’t understand what the big deal was with eating a cherry, but Anna’s reaction made him think there was something he was missing. 

Hans held up a finger indicating that Kristoff should wait a moment. His mouth remained closed as his jaw moved around in exaggerated motions. After some time he stuck his fingers into his mouth and pulled out the stem of the cherry, holding it up triumphantly. 

Anna squealed with delight. “You _have_ to teach me how to do that!”

Kristoff took hold of Hans’s wrist and lifted his arm up so he could get a closer look at the cherry stem. It was in a perfect, tight little knot. Hans had done _that_ with just his tongue?

“Yeah, you have to teach her how to do that,” Kristoff said without thinking. 

Hans burst out laughing, nearly doubling over. Anna went red and started giggling uncontrollably. 

“Oh, I didn’t-,” Kristoff couldn’t finish his sentence, beginning to laugh as well at the absurd realization that he basically just asked Hans to teach Anna how to give better blow jobs. 

As the three of them laughed, the drink Hans was holding slipped from his hand and landed on the ground with a smash. 

“Oh shit!” Anna said as she jumped away from the broken glass.

A few _ooh’s_ and calls of _‘party foul!’_ came from the crowd around them. Hans clasped a hand over his mouth but it did little to contain his laughter. Kristoff saw that a mean looking bouncer in a black t-shirt was walking over to them. 

He put his beer down on the bar and took Hans by both shoulders. “We’re going, we’re going,” he said to the bouncer as he started guiding Hans towards the exit, Anna holding onto Kristoff’s shirt as she trailed behind. 

“I can’t believe you got us kicked out,” Kristoff said once they were out on the sidewalk. 

“No, no,” Hans said as he started to catch his breath. “I blame that completely on you.”

“Now what do we do?” Anna asked. “I don’t really want to walk all the way back to that party.”

The three of them stood there for a moment in thought before Hans’s face lit up like a light bulb. 

“Wait! I’m a genius!” Hans declared, lifting his arm up into the air.

“Why exactly?” Kristoff asked. 

“All the liquor I bought last weekend. When we went food shopping. It’s all at your apartment, just two blocks that’a way.”

“Yes!” Anna dramatically pointed down the block. “To Kristoff’s apartment!”

“To my apartment,” Kristoff said with a smile as he pointed as well. And with that the three of them began to walk. He didn’t know if he could really stomach much more liquor, but he wasn’t ready for the night to be done either. 

“Ugh!” Anna groaned when they were about halfway there. “My feet hurt. I don’t want to walk anymore.”

“Want a piggyback ride?” Hans asked. 

Anna gasped and clasped her hands together. “Yes!”

“I thought we weren’t going to be getting need-to-be-carried drunk,” Kristoff said with a smirk. 

“I’m not need-to-be-carried drunk, I’m _want_ -to-be-carried drunk.”

“Ah, ok,” Kristoff laughed. 

Anna hopped up on Hans’s back but, instead of walking forward, Hans began to spin around in a circle. Anna squealed and tightened her hold on him. 

“Hans! Noooo!” Anna called out through laughter. “I’m going to get dizzy!”

He slowed to a stop and Kristoff could see just how much he was trying to hold in his laughter. “All I offered was a ride, I didn’t say what kind of ride.” 

“Oh my god, you’re such a jerk,” Anna said but a bright smile was on her face. 

Kristoff felt a warmth in his cheeks and down his neck as he looked at the two of them. It was the alcohol showing its effects, he thought. 

Anna got down off Hans’s back and gave him a small jab as he giggled and hopped away from her. 

“Ok, now _I’m_ tired,” Hans said, letting out a breath and putting his hands on his hips. “Kristoff, you’re going to give me a piggyback ride now.”

“Oh I am, am I?” 

“Yep,” Hans said, popping the p. 

“Alright,” Kristoff waived him over, “Hop on up, Rusty.” 

“Yay!” Anna clapped her hands as Hans hurried over to Kristoff. 

Kristoff squatted down a bit as Hans jumped onto his back. He stood up straight, his hands hooked under Hans’s thighs as Hans wrapped his arms over Kristoff’s shoulder and across his chest. 

“Wait, Wait!” Anna said as she hurried down the sidewalk away from them and then turned around, her phone in hand. “I need to get a picture of this.”

Kristoff smiled as Anna snapped the picture and he could feel Hans’s warm breath on his cheek. 

“Are you going to spin him like he spun me?” Anna asked.

“No, no, no,” Kristoff said as he began to walk forward. “If I spin in a circle right now, I’ll puke.”

{ ~ }

As they entered Kristoff’s apartment, Anna and Hans went right for where the liquor was in the cabinet while Kristoff headed for the couch. He flopped down heavy onto the nearest part of it and let out a low groan. 

“We should play a drinking game,” Anna said as her and Hans gathered up the bottles of liquor and some cups and headed into the living room. 

“I don’t really want to do anything that requires me to stand up,” Kristoff grumbled. 

“We can do one of the games I have on my phone,” she said. Kristoff nodded in approval. 

Anna deposited what she was carrying onto the coffee table as she sat down in the middle of the couch. Hans took a seat on the opposite side of her 

“Ok,” she said as she took out her phone. “We already played Most Likely To. Ya’ll don’t like Never Have I Ever. Oh, how about Truth or Dare?”

“Truth or Dare is a drinking game?” Hans asked.

“That feels like it will violate my no standing up rule,” Kristoff noted.

“No, no, it’s fine,” Anna waived a hand. “You bend the rules a bit to make it a drinking game. It works, I’ve done it before. And we can skip over the dares and just do the truths so there is no standing up. So, ok, the way you play is you get the prompt and everyone has to either answer the truth or take a drink.”

Hans and Kristoff both agreed and Anna tapped on the screen where it said ‘Truth’ for a prompt.

“What age did you lose your virginity?”

“Wow,” Hans snorted. “Starting out strong.”

“I’ll answer,” Anna said confidently. “Seventeen. Now you go Kristoff.” 

“Hmm,” he hummed. “But isn’t virginity a misogynistic and hedaron-, hetemon-,” Kristoff snapped his fingers a few times. 

“Heteronormative,” Hans mumbled. 

“There it is.” Kristoff pointed. “Isn’t virginity a misogynistic and heteronormative construct?”

“Ok mister gender studies all of a sudden. I think you just don’t want to say because it’s embarrassing.” Anna leaned her shoulder into his. “Like maybe it was recently. Like maybe I popped your cherry.” 

Hans began to giggle next to her. 

“No,” Kristoff rolled his eyes. “Fine. My answer is eighteen.” 

“Ok, Hans, your turn.”

“Kristoff did have a point,” Hans said. “Virginity, as a concept, is very problematic. And I feel like any true answer for me would be more than just-,”

Anna groaned and rolled her head back.

“What?” 

“Either give us some kind of an answer or drink.”

“Fine,” Hans took a breath. “Sixteen was my first time with a girl, seventeen was my first time topping with a guy, and eighteen was my first time bottoming with a guy.”

Well. Anna hadn’t expected all that. She didn’t want to look too surprised at learning a new thing about him though, so she looked down at her phone and tapped the screen again to get a new prompt. 

“If you met a fortune teller, what is one thing you would want to know?”

“Winning lottery numbers,” Hans said matter-of-factly.

“I think the point of the question is what piece of information from your future would you want to know.”

“Well, if I have the winning lottery numbers then I _know_ I’ll win the lottery and then I _know_ that I get to tell my dad to fuck off a lot earlier than expected.”

“Ok, ok, fine. That’s acceptable.” Anna remembered Hans telling her how much he hated his dad. “I think for me it would be…,” she pondered for a moment. “I guess where I’m going to live eventually. And where Elsa is going to live. I want us to live nearby when we’re, ya know, actual grown ups. What about you Kristoff?”

Kristoff pressed his lips together in thought. “I don’t think I would want to know anything.”

“Ok, so then you drink,” Hans said. 

“What? No, I gave an answer. My answer is nothing.”

“I’m with Hans on this,” Anna said. “That doesn’t count as an answer.”

“I really don’t want to drink any more,” Kristoff groaned. “Ok, fine, I would want to know how many kids I’m going to have.”

Anna smiled. What a sweet wish. Not _if_ he was going to have kids, but _how many_ he would have. She looked back at her phone and tapped the screen again. 

“Have you ever been in love?” Anna dropped her hands into her lap. “I haven’t. There was this guy in high school that I thought I was in love with for like a minute, but it was really just a big crush. More like an infatuation. But it turned out he was a big jerk so that went away fast.” 

Anna glanced at both Hans and Kristoff, but neither seemed eager to go next. She tried to guess what their answers would be. Maybe a yes for Kristoff? Probably a no for Hans. 

“Yes,” Kristoff said eventually. “Once.”

“Really?” Anna turned to face him more. “Tell us about it.”

Kristoff took a deep breath and seemed to gather his thoughts for a moment before speaking. 

“Her name was Paige. We met in community college. Like, the very first week. We were in the same situation, going to community college for our two year degree to save money and then planning to transfer to a university afterwards. She was amazing. And things were great, really great, for a while.”

“What happened?” Anna asked. 

“Well,” Kristoff shifted a bit, crossing his arms across his chest. “I told you guys how my grandma died right around the time I was finishing up community college. After she died, I-I kind of turned inward. Didn’t really handle it well. I started to shut people out. I became a terrible boyfriend.”

Anna gave him a sympathetic look. She knew he could be quiet and not much of a talker, but she could never imagine Kristoff being a terrible boyfriend. 

“Paige did her best to be as understanding and patient with me as possible. Honestly, she put up with me way longer than she should have. She was never going to dump a guy because he was sad about his dead grandma though, she was too good of a person to do that. 

“And, well, so that was spring that grandma died. And this funk of mine continued all through the summer and we grew further and further apart. Once we started getting close to the fall, I knew things couldn’t keep going on as they were. I had to put my schooling on hold because of money stuff, but Paige was still going off to a university. She got into Syracuse, which was where she always wanted to go.” Kristoff uncrossed his arms and began to scratch at the fabric of his jeans with his thumb nail. “I couldn’t let her go off and start this new chapter of her life and still have me to worry about back home. So, shortly before she left we talked and I ended things. There were some tears, but, I think we both knew it was already over.” 

Anna wasn’t sure what to say. It was a terribly sad story. But all these sad things that had happened to him, they were the reason he was sitting there with them right now. If Kristoff hadn’t gone through all that, Anna never would have known him. She felt a bit guilty thinking like that. 

“I’m glad I ended it when I did, though,” Kristoff continued. “Not letting things get to a point where we started resenting or hurting each other, it allowed us to become friends again after a while. We still keep in touch, talk a few times a year. She actually got engaged this past New Year’s.”

“That’s nice,” Anna said with a smile. 

“Yeah, she seems really happy.” Kristoff’s eyes were a bit droopy from all the alcohol they had had that night, but Anna could tell by his expression that he was genuinely happy for his old girlfriend. 

“What about you, Hans?” Anna asked, turning to him. “You have a story to tell us?” 

“Is this a yes or no answer or do I have to tell a whole story?” he asked, his voice sounding a bit vacant. 

Anna shifted on the couch to face him more. “Tell us a story.” 

Hans eyed the bottles on the coffee table before sitting up and pouring himself some of the Fireball and quickly taking a shot. He hissed and grimaced slightly before sitting back against the couch. 

“Next?” he asked, looking back at her. 

Anna wasn’t sure what to make of that. Did that mean no, Hans had never been in love and therefore had no story to tell, so he took a drink? Or did it mean yes, Had once been in love but he took a drink because he didn’t want to tell them the story? She desperately wanted to pry but Hans was clearly looking to move on from the question so she tapped her phone screen again. 

“What is the weirdest thing you have ever eaten?” Anna looked up. “That’s easy, ostrich.”

“What?” Hans and Kristoff both asked simultaneously. 

“Oh, yeah. Elsa is always taking me to these weird experimental restaurants in the city. They serve all kinds of strange meat.”

Hans cracked a smile. “I wouldn’t think that Elsa would like strange meat.”

Anna could hear Kristoff snicker from her other side. 

“Why do you say that?” Anna asked him, but instead of answering both Hans and Kristoff broke into laughter. “What? What’s so funny?”

But the two of them just kept laughing. She looked back and forth between them, baffled, until the joke finally clicked in her brain. 

“Oh!” Anna gave Hans a whack on the arm. “You’re horrible.” But her chastising just made him laugh harder. 

{ ~ }

They got a break from the telling of truths when Anna needed to get up to go to the bathroom. Hans glanced across the couch at Kristoff who was looking as tired as Hans was feeling. He watched as Kristoff slouched down further down on the couch and closed his eyes. He was kind of cute like this, Hans thought, all sleepy and soft and rumpled. A brief thought entered his mind, of what it would be like to scooch across the couch and curl up next to him right at that moment. 

“Ok, who is ready to keep playing?” Anna called out as she emerged from the bathroom. Neither him nor Kristoff answered her though. “Guys!” Anna shouted as she got closer to them. “You both look like you’re about to fall asleep.”

“I feel like I’m about to fall asleep,” Kristoff mumbled, keeping his eyes closed. 

“No,” Anna stomped her foot. “Not allowed.”

Hans felt his eyelids getting heavy and he slouched down a bit further into the couch. 

“I’m going to get your attentions one way or another,” Anna declared before walking around to the side of the coffee table and stepping up onto the top of it. 

“Kristoff,” Hans whacked him on the arm, “Wake up, we’re about to get a show.”

“M’wake,” Kristoff said as he opened his eyes a bit. He opened them wider when he saw Anna standing up on the coffee table. “What are you doing?” 

“I’m getting your attention,” Anna said, holding her arms out to the side. 

“Well. Attention got.” Kristoff smiled up at her. “You should probably get down, though. I can’t vouch for the strength of that thing. I found it out on someone’s curb one day.” 

“Ok, fine,” Anna smirked. “Catch!” she called out before throwing herself off the coffee table in Kristoff’s direction. Kristoff quickly sat up and lifted his arms, catching her securely in his arms as he let out an _oof_. 

“Wow,” Hans remarked. “That was, like, some crazy trust exercise.” 

They all laughed as Kristoff’s relaxed back against the couch. Anna readjusted herself and stretched out. Still sitting on Kristoff’s lap, she swung her legs out over the arm of the couch and then laid back so her head landed on the middle cushion. 

Hans looked down at her. “Hi.” 

“Hi,” she said back with a small giggle as she smiled up at him. Even upside down she was gorgeous. 

Hans felt a warmth prickle up his spine. The top of her head was about an inch or two away from the side of Hans’s thigh, meaning her face was close enough to his crotch for some improper thoughts to creep in. 

He let his hand drop away from his lap and rake through Anna’s hair that was splayed out on the couch cushion next to her face. Her expression softened and he repeated the motion one more time before lightly brushing the back of his knuckles against her temple. 

But then he remembered where he was. And who else was sitting with them. 

Hans retracted his hand and quickly looked to the other end of the couch, fearing what anger or hurt he may find there. Instead he saw that Kristoff had his eyes closed again and his head was lulled back against the top of the couch. He had one hand on Anna’s thigh and the other was tracing lazy patterns up and down her shin. 

Suddenly feeling very sober, Hans realized just how dangerous this situation was. The risks that came with the three of them being so drunk and so close together on Kristoff’s couch. Any one of them could inadvertently say or do something that could let a secret slip. And if one secret slipped, all the others could come flowing out after it. The risk of everything being exposed was suddenly real in a way it had never felt before, and it sent flashes of fear through him. 

Hans cleared his throat and stood up. “It’s getting really late, I should head home.”

“What?” Anna blinked and then sat herself up. “No, stay.” She gave Kristoff’s arm a shake. “He should stay, right?”

Kristoff opened his eyes and looked over at Hans. “Yeah, you can sleep here if you want.” He gave the arm of the couch a pat. “This thing isn’t the most comfortable, but it’s better than walking all the way back to your place at this hour.” 

“I’m not going to be out here on the couch while you two go have sex in the next room,” Hans said with a forced laugh. He meant for it to be a joke, but it came out kind of awkward and stilted. 

There was a heavy quiet in the room for a few moments but, thankfully, Kristoff finally spoke. 

“It’s going to take all the energy I have left to stand up and walk from here to the bed, so that’s not really a worry.” He looked over at Anna. “Sorry.”

“No, it’s fine,” Anna waved her hand. “I’m ready to pass out too. But, see, Hans you should stay.” 

Hans had spent that one night on Kristoff’s floor and that had been fine. But things were different now. Riskier. He thought about waking up in the morning, being here while the two of them did whatever domestic things they did together on Saturday morning. He thought about Anna’s toothbrush sitting there in Kristoff’s bathroom. 

“No,” he said, fiddling with the cuff of his shirt. “Thank you for the offer, but I’d rather just sleep in my own bed.”

“Ok, well, goodnight then,” Anna said, looking a bit disappointed. 

Her and Keristoff both stood up from the couch and came over to give him goodbye hugs. And, yes, definitely, leaving right now was the wise choice. 

“I’ll come lock the door behind you,” Kristoff said, walking him over to the front door of the apartment. Hans gave him one last nod before quickly stepping outside. 

When Hans heard the click of the door locking behind him, he stopped. Instead of walking away he leaned his back against the door and closed his eyes. From within he could hear the muffled sounds of Anna and Kristoff’s voices. Hans couldn’t make out what they were saying exactly, but he was able to hear a bit of laughter at one point. Eventually the apartment seemed to fall quiet and he assumed that they had finally gone to bed. Opening his eyes, Hans pushed himself off the door and began his walk back to campus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to acknowledge that what Hans does with Eric in this chapter is not a good thing. He’s starting to develop feelings for Anna and Kristoff but does not want to admit it to himself. Here Eric is representing the “old” Hans, the person he was his whole college life before meeting Anna and Kristoff. By kissing Eric, Hans is trying to prove to himself that he’s still the guy that doesn’t get attached and therefore can’t get hurt.


	38. Chapter 38

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anna seeks out some sisterly advice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Content warning: homophobia]

“Fuck,” Hans groaned as he dragged himself out of bed.

He had awoken with a splitting headache, a dry mouth, and an uneasy stomach. Still in just his boxer-briefs and t-shirt, Hans stumbled out of his bedroom and winced as the brighter light of the common room hit his eyes. One of his suitemates, Torres, was sitting on the couch, eating cereal and watching TV. 

“You look awful,” he remarked. 

“Thanks,” Hans murmured as he made his way over to the refrigerator. 

“What did you get up to last night?”

“Jungle juice at omega pi.” Hans opened the refrigerator, took out a Gatorade, and began to chug it. 

“Yikes,” Torres said. “Their shit is strong.” 

Hans paused his drinking for a moment and swallowed. “I’m aware,” he said before downing the rest of the Gatorade. 

Torres smirked at him. “Are you _also_ aware that we have practice in a couple of hours?”

“Fuck,” he cursed as he tossed the empty bottle into the recycling bin. 

His suitemate chuckled to himself as he turned his attention back to the TV. 

Ok. Hans had to get himself together. Game plan: Shower. Iced coffee. Food. 

{ ~ }

“I’m never drinking jungle juice ever again,” Anna whined as she curled up closer to him in bed. 

“I’m never drinking any kind of juice ever again,” Kristoff groaned in response. He buried his face deeper into his pillow as he felt a pounding in his brain. 

“We can stay in bed a bit longer, right?” she asked him. 

“I don’t have the ability to stand up yet, so, yes.” 

{ ~ }

Once Anna had gotten back to the dorms later that morning, and had showered and changed into comfy clothes, she texted Ryder to come down to her room. They sat on her bed as she gave him a complete rundown of the previous night's events. 

“Jesus,” Ryder swore after Anna told him the whole story. “Wish I could have been there and given Joe a piece of my mind.”

“Kristoff and Hans were about to beat the shit of him before I stopped them.”

“Good.” Ryder took a breath and shook his head. “Are you going to tell Madison?”

“Yes, I think I have to.” Anna sighed and let her head fall back against the wall. 

“Are you going to talk to her today?” he asked. 

“No. I need to get my thoughts together. I’ll probably recruit Elsa to help me plan out exactly what I’m going to say.” Elsa was always so good at helping her organize her thoughts. “I’m definitely not going out with the group tonight though,” she continued, “but you still should. Don’t let me keep you away from everyone.” 

“Actually,” a smile began to spread across Ryder’s face. “I’m not going to go out with the group tonight, either.” 

“No?”

“Nope! Chloe and I are going out on a date.”

Anna sat up a bit. “Like a _date_ date?”

“Yeah like a proper date. We’re going into town and doing dinner and a movie.”

“That’s so exciting!” she exclaimed, clapping her hands a few times. 

“I know. I’ve never been on a real date before.” Ryder scratched at the back of his neck. “I’m a bit nervous actually.” 

“Don’t be nervous, it’s going to be great! And you’ll have to tell me all about it over breakfast tomorrow.”

“Will do. But,” Ryder checked his phone. “I gotta run, I’ve got to get to practice.”

“Ok, have fun tonight.” Anna gave him a hug and they said their goodbyes. 

After Ryder left, Anna laid down in her bed and closed her eyes. She was about to drift off into a nap when her phone buzzed. Peeking her eyes open, she looked at her phone to see a message from Kristoff.

_hey, you left your western civ books here_

Anna groaned. Of course she did. 

Her initial thought was that Kristoff could just bring them with him on Thursday to class and give them to her then. But then she remembered that they had a quiz that Thursday that she would need her books to study for. 

Anna typed out a quick message in response. 

_thanks, i’ll come get them at some point_

{ ~ }

Hans had managed to get himself together enough by the time practice started that he wasn’t hurting _too_ too bad. He was going to go right back to bed as soon as he got back to his room though. Sleep away the whole afternoon. He wanted to make sure he wasn’t still feeling awful when Anna hopefully texted him later that night. 

Currently Coach Mattias had them running sprints, which Hans usually didn’t mind. Usually. Today it was making him feel like he was going to puke. 

O’Malley somehow ended up next to him and they all ran up and down the field. While Hans was a step behind his normal pace that day, he was still a step ahead of his asshole of a teammate. O’Malley, the shark that he was, seemed to smell blood in the water though. He was huffing and puffing and clearly trying his hardest to beat Hans on this particular sprint. But, fuck that, even on his worst day Hans wasn’t going to this guy beat him. He turned on his jets and ran as hard as he could finishing out the sprint strong and staying ahead of O’Malley. 

“I win,” Hans said to him, somewhat mockingly as they all caught their breaths before the next sprint. 

“Well, don’t get too proud of yourself,” O’Malley responded, lingering as the rest of their teammates sprinted back up the field, leaving the two of them alone. “Your wings give you an unfair advantage.”

Hans gave him a look. “The fuck are you talking about, wings?” 

He could see O’Malley’s smarmy smirk through the face mask of his helmet. “Yeah. Don’t all fairies have wings?” he asked before taking off back down the field. 

Hans’s hands clenched into fists at his side as he watched O’Malley run off. “Fucking asshole,” he grumbled before dragging himself back into a run. 

Towards the end of practice, Coach Mattias split them up into two teams to run some plays. Hans smiled to himself when he was assigned to the team that would be playing defense and O’Malley was assigned to the one playing offense. 

Hans kept a close eye on O’Malley, but for the first couple of plays he didn’t get the ball once. But finally, when O’Malley was passed the ball, Hans saw his chance. He charged full force at him, their sticks clashing together followed by their bodies colliding. O’Malley hit the ground hard and a chorus of _ooh’s_ came from the guys around them. 

“Westergaard!” Coach Mattias shouted from the sidelines before angrily marching over to him. “What the hell was that?”

“A defensive maneuver, sir,” Hans said, standing up a bit straighter. 

He came to a stop directly in front of Hans and put his hands on his hips. “And why exactly would you lay a hit like _that_ , which would be illegal in an actual game, on one of your own teammates in practice?” 

A couple of the guys had helped O’Malley back up to his feet by that point, and he was now staring daggers at Hans. 

_Because he called me a fairy._

“Just trying to play aggressive, sir.”

Coach gave Hans a stern look. “Twenty laps around the field. _Now._ ” And with that Coach turned and walked away from him. 

Hans clenched his jaw. He could feel the eyes of the whole team on him as he made his way over to the sidelines to drop his stick and helmet before beginning his laps. As jogged around the perimeter of the field, Hans focused on looking straight ahead and not out to the rest of the players continuing on with practice. 

It had felt good in the moment but it had been a stupid thing to do, hitting O’Malley like that. Hans had let his anger get the better of him. He knew he was capable of keeping it in check. Capable of not letting it show how O’Malley’s comments got to him. But today Hans had let himself break and retaliate. And why? What O’Malley had said wasn’t even that bad compared to what Hans normally got from him. 

Stupid. 

Not only was he now on Coach’s shitlist, he was also probably going to make things worse for himself with O’Malley. He had to just let those things roll off his back. As much as Hans hated to admit it, there was no point in trying to fight back because there was no winning when it came to this. Hans had learned that the hard way back in high school. 

By the time Hans finished his laps, practice was ending and guys were already starting to walk back to the athletic center. He grabbed up his stuff and began to head back as well, avoiding everyone else as best he could. As he walked, he began to hear swift footsteps behind him and Hans flinched slightly at a sudden presence beside him. He relaxed though when he saw that it was only Ryder. 

“Hey man,” Ryder said way too loud. “That hit on O’Malley was hardcore. He caught the ball and then _BAM_ two seconds later you’re like _CRASH_ right into him and-,” 

“Yes! I was there,” Hans snapped. “I don’t need a recap. Thank you.”

Ryder didn’t say anything more, but he slowed down his walking and dropped away from Hans’s side. 

Hans let out a frustrated breath. _Fuck._ He really shouldn’t be such a jerk to Ryder all the time. Hans knew he was someone important to Anna so he should at least give the guy a try. But today wasn’t a day for making amends. Right now all Hans was thinking about was a hot shower and a long nap. 

{ ~ }

That night, Anna was over at Elsa’s place. They were sitting on the couch with glasses of wine, their Thai food take-out long since finished. Maren was hanging out over to one of their friends’ places so the two of them had the apartment to themselves. 

“Thank you,” Anna said genuinely as they finished up their conversation on how she should approach Madison, “This has been really helpful. I think I’m set on everything I’m going to say to her. I just need to remember it all in the moment.”

“Of course, anytime.” Elsa tilted her head to the side slightly as she regarded her sister. “Is everything else ok?”

“Yeah,” Anna said quickly, but in a voice that wasn’t even convincing to herself. 

Ever since her… dream? Fantasy? Whatever the heck that was when she thought about both Kristoff and Hans touching her at the same time. Ever since _that_ , Anna had been spending more time thinking about her whole situation with the two of them. How her feelings for both of them had grown since the beginning of the semester. And about how she was keeping this big secret from Kristoff. 

“Actually, no. Not really,” Anna admitted. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” 

Anna looked down into her glass as she swirled the wine around. Her reasoning for not telling Ryder about the whole thing was that if Anna was asking Hans to keep it a secret then it was only fair for Anna to do the same. But this was Elsa. She always told Elsa everything. 

“If I tell you, you have to promise not to tell anyone else.”

“Of course,” Elsa said seriously.

“Not even Maren,” she said, looking back up at her sister. 

“I promise.”

“Ok,” Anna nodded. “It’s about Kristoff. I’ve developed some real feelings for him. And I think he has for me too.” 

“That’s great,” Elsa said with a smile. When Anna didn’t smile back at her, Elsa’s expression changed to a quizzical one. “That’s not great?”

“It’s… complicated.”

“Ok,” Elsa said cautiously. 

“I think I’ve,” Anna started and then stopped. If she was going to tell the truth she might as well be fully truthful. “No, I _know_ I’ve developed feelings for someone else too.”

“Oh.” 

“It’s Hans.”

“Oh,” Elsa said again. Anna could then see the gears turning in her head. “ _Oh._ ”

“Yeah,” Anna said sheepishly.

“And Kristoff doesn’t know?”

“No.”

“So, how did…” Elsa began and then trailed off a bit. 

“How did I get myself into this situation?” Anna offered. 

Elsa gave her a half smile. “A bit of background _would_ be helpful if you’re looking for advice.” 

Anna took a breath and gathered her thoughts before speaking. “The first time Hans and I, you know, it was the first weekend of the semester. Kristoff didn’t know that it happened and there wasn’t any reason to go and tell him. I didn’t really know Kristoff that well then, and I was sure at the time that it was just going to be a one off thing with Hans. None of us had become friends yet. We were still just three people who _happened_ to be assigned to the same group project.”

“Ok,” Elsa nodded. 

“When things _did_ start up between Kristoff and I, I still didn’t think I needed to say anything to him about what had happened with Hans. My reasoning was that I didn’t owe Kristoff an itemized inventory of every person I had ever slept with just like he didn’t owe me one.” 

Elsa nodded again. “I would agree with all of your reasoning so far.”

“Right.” Anna shifted a bit in her seat. “But then things started to get complicated. Hans and I started hooking up again. And Kristoff and I got closer. And Hans I got closer. And Kristoff and Hans got closer too. They’re such good friends now.” Anna thought about the night they tried to cook, and how worried Kristoff had been when Hans cut his finger. “We _all_ got closer, the three of us. And now,” Anna sighed. “And now, all because of me, there is this secret in our little friends group and I don’t know what, if anything, I should do about it.”

“Hmm,” Elsa hummed as she seemed to process the information. “I have a couple of questions.”

“Shoot.” 

“You and Kristoff are still just casual, right? There is no actual cheating going on?”

“Yes, definitely,” Anna said with some seriousness. “I would never cheat.” 

“Good.” Elsa smiled a bit at that. “Is Kristoff sleeping with any other people?”

“Maybe?” Anna shrugged. “We _said_ we could see other people, but I don’t actually know for sure if he is.” 

“Is _Hans_ sleeping with other people?”

“Yes,” Anna said assuredly, thinking of Andrea from last weekend. “I see him leave parties with people.” 

“Ok,” Elsa nodded a few times as she took a sip of her wine. “And Hans knows about you and Kristoff, right?”

“Yes,” Anna confirmed. 

“How does he feel about that?”

“He says it doesn’t bother him. And he’s never acted jealous or anything, so I have no reason not to believe him.” 

“Ok. So here’s a big question,” Elsa said, crossing her legs. “Why do you think Kristoff would feel differently about the situation than Hans does?” 

“I-,” Anna paused. She hadn’t thought of it that way. “I’m not sure.”

“What are you afraid will happen if Kristoff does find out? That he’ll break things off with you? Or that he’ll stop being friends with Hans?” Elsa was pressing her, but this was good. This is what Anna needed, something to actually force her to face these questions. 

“I mean, anything is possible right?” Anna put her wine glass down on the coffee table and pulled her feet up on the couch, hugging her knees. “Deep down, no, I don’t think he’ll do all that. But I think it might make him feel awkward. Maybe self conscious a bit? And it could throw off the whole vibe between the three of us. I’m scared to disrupt anything, even just a little.” 

Elsa’s eyebrows knitted together. “You make this friendship the three of you have seem like a fragile, delicate thing.” 

“Not fragile, no. It’s just,” Anna rubbed her forehead, “I know this might sound crazy, and I don't know if I can even explain it properly, but when the three of us are together, and we’re hanging out and joking around with each other, it feels… it just feels _right_. I don’t know how else to describe it. It feels right and perfect and rare and, and,” she chewed at her lip for a moment as she thought about all the fun the three of them had the night before. “And I’m scared to do anything that might mess it up.”

Elsa gave her a sympathetic look.

“So. What do you think I should do?” 

“Well,” Elsa said slowly, drumming her fingernails against her wine glass. “On one hand honesty in relationships is important. On the other hand, you and Kristoff have a friends with benefits arrangement, which isn’t the same as an exclusive relationship and doesn’t come with the same commitments and responsibilities towards each other. But then on another hand-,” 

“How many hands are there?” Anna interjected with a small smile.

“Who is the one that made it such a complicated situation?” Elsa retorted, but not unkindly. 

“Me,” Anna let out a short, frustrated laugh. “I know.”

“I’m not trying to be evasive here, Anna. It’s just hard for me to give precise advice on a situation like this. I don’t exactly have much experience with something like, like _this_.” Anna could see a light blush on her sister’s cheeks. “Maren is the only person I’ve ever been with.” 

Anna nodded and looked down into her lap. 

“That’s not me judging you,” Elsa added quickly, reaching a hand out to her sister. “I promise.” 

“I know,” she said looking back up. The two sisters approached sex and relationsips very differently, but Elsa had never judged Anna for her choices. 

“I don’t think I’m going to be able to tell you exactly what you should do,” Elsa said. “I think in order to figure out what the best thing to do is, you need to figure out what you really want. You need to do what will make you happy. _But_ , you also need to keep the feelings of these two guys you say you care about in mind.” 

“I was afraid you were going to say that.” Anna sighed. “But you’re right, I don’t want to hurt either of them.”

After a moment of quiet, Elsa looked at her with slightly narrowed eyes. “You’re being safe, right?”

“Yes,” Anna responded, firmly. “Condoms always plus the pill.” 

“Good, good.” Elsa held up a hand. “Just checking.”

Anna had been on the pills for years by that point. What their parents lacked in warmth, they made up for in matter-of-fact practicality. Which meant their mom taking them to the gyno when they each turned fifteen to get them on the pill. Anna began to laugh at a certain memory. 

“What?” Elsa asked, cocking an eyebrow at her.

“I was just thinking about how you stayed on the pill for over a year instead of telling mom and dad that you were gay.” 

Elsa began to laugh as well and then groaned and covered her face with her hand. “Oh god.”

~

As she walked back to campus later that night, Anna thought about Elsa’s advice. About figuring out what she really wanted. But wanted… when? What she wanted that day? Or what she would want a week from now? Or a month from now? Or a year from now? How could she possibly know what she would want at any point in the future? 

She knew what she wanted tonight, though. 

Anna took out her phone and texted Hans. 

_hey, my place?_

~

Anna and Hans laid on their sides facing each other, her blanket pulled up around their waists. His fingers were tracing the curves of her body, running up the swell of her hip and along the dip of her waist to her ribs and then back down again. As he did that, Hans was telling a story of a burly football player who fainted while they were dissecting frogs in his biology lab that week. 

“I swear, this guy was, like, huge. Like, bigger-than-Kristoff huge.”

“Impossible,” Anna responded flatly. 

“No. _Possible._ ” Hans squeezed her hip for emphasis. “So, now there was this giant guy passed out on the floor. And he was totally fine by the way, don’t worry. But he’s, like, giant, right? So no one knows what to do because no one thinks they could move him. But then our professor, who is this five foot tall little lady by the way, takes hold of one of his arms and starts dragging him to the front of the room like it’s nothing.” 

Anna started to laugh. “This didn’t happen, you’re lying.”

“No,” Hans laughed too, “I’m serious. This happened. So, she gets him over near the sink in the front of the room and starts trying to spray the water from the faucet on him to try to wake him up. But, ok, so this is the best part, so…” 

Anna thought more about _‘what did she want’_ as she listened to Hans talk. This. She wanted this. These Saturday nights with Hans were always so nice and she couldn’t imagine giving them up. 

There was the sex, of course. It was amazing. Passion and fire and ecstasy. Images from moments earlier flashed through her mind. Hans with one hand pulling on her hair as the other gripped her hip bruisingly tight. The intensity in his eyes and his teeth grazing her skin and his mouth hot on hers. Anna’s nails digging into his shoulders as she cried out his name. 

But it wasn’t just the sex. It was also _this_. These moments afterwards where their naked bodies were cuddled close in her small lofted bed, the string lights hung up on the wall creating a glowing cocoon around them. They would talk and laugh about silly things, share and learn about each other. The way Hans would trace his hands and fingers gently across her hip, her side, her back, her shoulder - anywhere and everywhere but always maintaining contact. It was almost like he was trying to get a week's worth of touching in in just a few hours. 

Anna thought about that first night her and Hans spent together. All the lines he was using on her at that party and how easily she saw right through him. She had told herself that guys who acted like that weren’t the kind you could trust your heart with. But then she had also told herself that it didn’t matter because all she wanted out of Hans was a one time thing. How wrong she had been that night, about so many things. 

Anna thought back to another night, the one where her and Kristoff had their second talk about the nature of their relationship. Where they admitted deeper feelings for each other but still agreed that they wanted to keep things casual. _‘You’ve become a very special person to me, Anna,’_ were the words that Kristoff had said to her that night. 

She wondered what response she would get from Hans if she tried to initiate the same type of conversation with him. Would it play out the same way it had with Kristoff? Or would it scare Hans and send him running? Anna wasn’t sure she wanted to find out. 

She was hiding truths from both of them, she realized. 

Leaning in, Anna slotted her mouth against Hans while he was mid-sentence, cutting him off as she kissed him deep. Hans seemed surprised at first but then melted into it, pulling her closer to him. When Anna broke the kiss and looked at him, she saw his green eyes smiling back at her. 

“What was that for?” Hans asked. “Not that I’m complaining.” 

Anna gave a small shrug. “No reason, I just wanted to.”


	39. Chapter 39

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Too straight for the gays, too gay for the straights

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wanted to start off with a quick note. I have good news and bad news. The good news: I’m writing a Frozen Christmas fic based on A Christmas Carol with Hans as Scrooge. I’m super excited about it and can’t wait to share it! But now for the bad news: The precious few hours I get to write each day will (for a little while) be split between two different fics. I’ll still do my best to update Room for You at least once a week as usual, but if I fall behind that is why. 
> 
> Now onto the chapter...
> 
> [Content warning: conversations on biphobia and homophobia, struggles with coming out]

Hans braced his hands against Kristoff’s bare chest as he rocked his body up and down, sweat already heavy on his brow and chest. Arching his back and tilting his hips, Hans was able to position himself in just the right way so that Kristoff was hitting that sweet spot inside of him over and over and over. 

“Oh wow, oh _god_ ,” Kristoff moaned out from below him. His brown eyes were wide and he had that look of awe of his face that made Hans feel worshiped. 

Kristoff's hands were gripping onto his thighs, holding Hans tight but not trying to control his movements. Hans wished he would though. Looking down at Kristoff, with all the muscles of his arms and chest flexed tight, he wished he would take control and show Hans just what all that strength felt like. Kristoff wasn’t usually aggressive in bed, but Hans had seen enough fire under his surface to know that he could be coaxed into something more. 

Hans bit down on his lower lip to hold in a smile as an idea came to him. Easing up, he slowed the pace with which he was riding Kristoff all the way down. Lifting his hips up until Kristoff was nearly out of him and then sinking back down - all in long, drawn out, and achingly slow strokes. 

Kristoff tightened his hold and let out a near whimper, but still didn’t try to force anything. 

“What’s the matter?” Hans asked innocently, trying to provoke him. 

“You want to go a little faster?” Kristoff responded, his voice sounding a bit strangled. 

Hans smirked down at him. “You want to _make_ me?”

A dark look of heat and desire passed across Kristoff’s face and, just as Hans had hoped for, he grabbed Hans tight by the waist and quickly rolled them both over. Hans let out a breath as his back hit the mattress and he allowed his arms to fall above his head. Kristoff’s mouth came crashing into his then. 

When Kristoff pulled back from the kiss he stared down at Hans with a heavy heat in his eyes. Hans simply gave him a victorious grin in return. Kristoff huffed and shook his head. 

“Why do you enjoy driving me crazy so much?” he asked as he ground his hips against Hans and pumped in and out of him a few times.

“Because it gets you to do stuff like that,” Hans said matter-of-factly. “Flip me over, kiss me hard.” 

“Is that the kind of stuff you want me to do?” Kristoff’s voice had touches of both apprehension and eagerness. “You want me to-, to-,” 

“To get a little rough?” Hans asked, a bit of anticipation prickling across his skin like electricity. “Yes. Very much so.” 

Kristoff wet his lips as his eyes searched Hans’s face. “How rough?”

Hans brought a hand to Kristoff’s face, tracing the line of his jaw with his fingers. “As rough as you think I deserve.” 

Kristoff’s eyes widened slightly and his hips bucked forward in a single hard thrust. Hans expected another kiss but instead Kristoff suddenly pulled out of and away from him, pushing himself up onto his knees and straightening up to his full height. 

“Turn over,” Kristoff commanded. 

Hans was stunned for a moment before quickly scrambling onto his stomach and propping himself up on his elbows. He felt Kristoff straddle his thighs as two large hands palmed at the flesh of his ass. Glancing over his shoulder, Hans could see Kristoff’s huge form looming over him. 

“You can give it a little smack if you want,” Hans said with a wink. 

Kristoff smirked back at him and pitched his ass instead. Hans flinched from the action, but Kristoff rubbed his thumb over the spot to soothe the skin. Then Hans felt a pressure at his entrance and he sucked in some air. Hans clutched at the bedsheet with both hands and his chin dropped down against his chest as Kristoff began to press into him once again. He let out a long, low breath through clenched teeth. _Fuck_ , Kristoff felt even bigger from this angle.

Once he was fully inside, Kristoff put a hand on the back of Hans’s neck and pushed down. Hans swallowed as he dropped down from his elbows, laying flat on the bed and turning his head so one cheek was against the mattress. 

From the corner of his vision he could see Kristoff lowering himself down and then Hans felt Kristoff’s chest press against his back. His breaths required a bit more effort with the larger man’s full weight on him. Kristoff placed a hand over the back of one of Hans’s, interlacing their fingers as he squeezed it tight. Kristoff’s other hand went to the back of Hans’s head, his blunt fingernails dragging down his scalp as he kissed at Hans’s cheek and neck. 

“Good?” Kristoff asked softly. 

“Yes,” Hans quickly answered, unable to keep the need from his voice. 

Kristoff began fucking him then. Slow at first, but quickly working himself up to a fast and powerful rhythm. Hans arched his back as best he could in this position, allowing Kristoff deeper access.

“Hans,” he breathed out before nipping at his ear and the sensation sent a shiver through Hans’s whole body. Kristoff’s hand closed in a fist around the hair on the top of Hans’s head. “Is this what you wanted?” 

The corner of his mouth quirked up. “I could go for harder,” Hans said, trying to sound casual. 

Almost immediately Kristoff’s force increased into relentless pounding. Hans gasped, pain and pleasure ricocheting around his body. 

“Yeah. You like that?” Kristoff nearly growled as he pulled on Hans’s hair, forcing his neck to crane back a bit. “You like it when I fuck you like that?”

“Y- _uh_. _Oh!_ Y-ye-mmm,” Hans stammered, unable to form a simple ‘yes’ as Kristoff took him over. 

“I like _that_.” Hans could hear the smile on Kristoff’s lips and could feel his deep voice rumbling through his whole body. “I like making you speechless. I like being the one driving you crazy for change.”

Kristoff was covering him and surrounding him and filling him and invading him. Hans felt himself coming undone as Kristoff drove him into the mattress over and over. Hans had done enough, been enough, to make this gentle man turn animalist with desire. Kristoff’s breath was hot on the side of his face as a string of praising words _‘So good. So tight. Holy shit, Hans. You’re so hot. Fuck, you’re incredible.’_ flowed out of his mouth between kisses that he peppered across Hans’s neck and cheek and jaw. 

Hans felt his breath saw in and out of his body and his heartbeat pounding in his ears. The hand that wasn’t already being held by Kristoff’s was fisted in the fitted sheet, and the two of them were so consumed by each other that they barely noticed when Hans inadvertently pulled it off one corner of the mattress. 

“Fuck, I’m-I’m,” Kristoff’s voice began to waiver. 

“Yes!” Hans pleaded, words finally returning to him. “Yes, give it to me.”

Hans hadn’t come yet himself, and knew he probably wouldn’t in this position, but he wanted to feel Kristoff come while they were like this.

Kristoff’s legs began to quiver and his breaths got shorter and his thrusts became erratic. Hans could feel every muscle in Kristoff’s body tightening and his hands clasped impossibly hard onto where they held Hans, as if he were some liferaft that Kristoff was clinging to for dear life. Burying his face into Hans’s neck, he grunted out his name before the movements of his body slowed to a stop. 

For a moment after they both laid still, the only sounds being their heavy breathing and the pounding of their hearts. Kristoff lifted the hand that was still clutching one of Hans’s tight and brought it to his mouth, placing a few light kisses across his knuckles. Pulling out and shifting his weight off of Hans, Kristoff rolled onto his side next to him. Hans felt his body instantly yearning, missing both the weight of Kristoff’s body on top of him and his large presence inside of him. 

Hans rolled onto his side as well, facing the other man. Kristoff’s hair was disheveled and sweaty and there was a heavy blush down his face and chest. 

“You ok?” Kristoff asked, bringing a hand up to Hans’s cheek. “I didn’t get too rough there, did I?”

“No, fuck, that was incredible.” Hans lifted his own hand up and covered Kristoff’s. “That’s exactly what I wanted.” 

Kristoff smiled and then pulled Hans closer to kiss him, but the movement caused his now aching erection to make contact with Kristoff’s thigh and Hans involuntarily let slip a moan. Kristoff quickly looked down between their bodies. 

“You didn’t come,” Kristoff remarked, sounding almost guilty. 

“Ah, no,” Hans admitted. “Not yet, at least. It’s ok, I told you you could come.”

“Hold on.” Kristoff jumped up from the bed, quickly took care of the condom, and was instantly back at Hans’s side. He gave him a tender kiss on the mouth as he rolled Hans onto his back and then began to move downward. 

Hans let out a stuttered and throaty laugh as Kristoff’s warm mouth enveloped him. Threading his fingers through the hair on the back of Kristoff’s head, Hans closed his eyes and enjoyed the feeling of the man who had just dominated him now servicing him. Kristoff worked at him with determination and it didn’t take long for Hans to find his release. 

“You’re getting better at that,” Hans said as Kristoff kissed a trail back up his body. “No teeth this time.”

That earned him a bite on the shoulder from Kristoff. 

“Mmm,” Hans hummed in response. “Please do that the next time you’re fucking me.”

“We only just finished and you’re already talking about next time?” Kristoff asked as he settled himself down on the bed next to Hans. 

“I’m insatiable. Haven’t you noticed?”

“Just a bit,” Kristoff chuckled as he rolled onto his back, bringing his hands up behind his head. The position accentuated the muscles of his arms and shoulders. “You’ll have to allow me at least a little bit of rebound time, ok?”

“I guess I can be patient if I need to be,” Hans responded, pretending to be disappointed. He rolled towards the other man and rested his head in the crook between Kristoff’s shoulder and chest. Kristoff lowered one arm around Hans and hugged him tighter while Hans placed a hand on Kristoff’s stomach. 

Kristoff’s body was always warm, but after what they just got done doing he was now radiating heat. Hans closed his eyes and took in the feeling. His mind was still woozy and there was still a satisfying ache down his backside. 

“Did you know that we have our own flag?” Kristoff said out of nowhere. 

Hans opened his eyes. He wasn’t sure if it was just that the blood hadn’t fully returned to his brain, or if he had zoned out and missed the first half of what Kristoff had said, because he couldn’t make sense of his question at all. 

“What?” he asked, craning his neck to look up at Kristoff. 

“Bisexuals. We have our own flag. It’s blue and pink and purple.”

“Oh. Yeah, I knew that.” Hans readjusted himself so that he could face Kristoff more while still staying tucked into his side “Did you only just learned that?” 

Kristoff shrugged. “I went by the Q Center one day and they had all these flags up in the windows and I realized I didn’t know what any of them meant, so, I googled it.”

Hans arched an eyebrow at him. “You went to the Q Center?” 

“Well, no,” Kristoff said, sounding a bit sheepish, “I didn’t _go_ like go _in_. I walked by it when I happened to be in the student union anyway.”

“Hmm,” Hans hummed. He was impressed that Kristoff had done even that. 

“Do you ever go there?” Kristoff asked him. 

“Eh.” Hans scrunched up his nose. “I went a couple of times early freshman year, but it wasn’t really my scene. They try to get you to talk about your feelings and all that shit.”

“The horror,” Kristoff responded dryly. “Anyway. When looking up the flags I learn some other stuff I didn’t know. Like, that there is more than just straight, gay, and bi. There are all these other… categories? Is that what they’re called?”

“Labels is probably the better word.” 

“Right. Labels. There are all these other _labels_ like pan and omni and demi.” Kristoff traced his fingers up and down Hans’s back as he talked. “Bisexual still feels like the right label for me though. I feel like it describes my _thing_ the best.” 

Hans smiled and felt a prideful warmth in his chest. Kristoff had come so far in his acceptance of his own sexuality. He thought back to that Saturday in Kristoff’s kitchen, the day after he had gotten high and let slip his long fought struggles. Kristoff had been so scared and nervous, all hunched shoulders and shaking hands and unable to maintain eye contact with Hans. Here he was now though, talking about it so comfortably. 

“The guys you sleep with,” Kristoff continued on, “are they usually bi or gay or one of the other ones?”

Hans shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t usually ask.”

“Why not?”

“It’s kind of a personal question. Not everyone wants to share their life story with a one night stand.” 

Kristoff huffed out a small laugh. “Yeah, I guess that’s true.”

He rested his head back against the pillow and seemed content with the answer. Hans knew it wasn’t the whole truth though. There were other reasons why he avoided being the first to bring up sexuality with the people he hooked up with. He thought about Andrea and how badly that had gone. 

Hans watched Kristoff’s profile for a moment. He should tell him, right? Hans didn’t want to scare Kristoff or make being out as bi seem like all doom and gloom, but Kristoff deserved to know what was out there. He deserved to know how people could be so he could be prepared and protect himself. 

“There’s another reason,” Hans began and Kristoff looked at him again. “Why I don’t ask the people I hook up with what their sexuality is. It’s because if I ask them then naturally they’re going to ask me the same question.”

“Ok,” Kristoff said slowly. “And that’s a bad thing?”

“Sometimes,” Hans nodded. “Sometimes I’d rather them not know if they don’t have to.” 

“What? Why?” Kristoff rolled onto his side to face Hans more. “I mean, I get that I’m not one to talk when it comes to this stuff. But you, you’re out. You’ve been out for a while, right?”

“Yes, that’s true. I’m out, and I take pride in being out. But coming out isn’t something that you do once. Every time I meet a new person I have to make a choice. Do I tell them? _When_ do I tell them? _How_ do I tell them?” 

“Straight people don’t have to do that,” Kristoff remarked. 

“No, they don’t,” Hans agreed. “Sometimes it’s just easier, sometimes it’s _simpler_ to leave certain things unsaid, especially if we’re just talking about one night stands. I won’t ever lie about it, but if it doesn’t come up then it doesn’t come up. I’m fine sometimes letting the girls I’m with think I’m straight and the guys I’m with think I’m gay.” 

Kristoff was watching him intently, clearly wanting to know more of what was behind Hans’s reasoning. Hans ran a hand across Kristoff’s chest and down his arm. He wanted to choose his words carefully, he wanted to get this conversation right. 

“Navigating sex and relationships while bi can be… tricky sometimes. There’s a saying: Too gay for the straights, too straight for the gays.” 

“Interesting saying,” Kristoff said with a small smile, “Considering we’re neither gay nor straight.” 

“I know, right?” Hans laughed. “Which half of the saying do you want me to explain first?” 

“Let’s start with too straight for the gays.”

“Ok.” Hans paused to gather his thoughts. “There are people, including some gay guys, who don’t think bisexuals, particularly bi guys, are real. They think bisexuality just a way point on the journey to gay town. That guys who _say_ they’re bi are just lying to themselves and are too scared to admit they’re gay.”

“That,” Kristoff furrowed his brow. “That doesn’t make any sense. I _know_ I’m not gay.”

“Same,” Hans said. “I love pussy too much.” Kristoff’s face relaxed at that as he let out a few short laughs. “But the more you try to say ‘I’m not gay’ the more they’re like ‘the lady doth protest too much, methinks.’”

“But wait, sorry, you _did_ tell me there was a time when you thought you might be gay.” 

“Yes,” Hans conceded. “There was a time when I was working through what my identity actually was. Most people go through a time like that, even the straights. And that’s totally fine. But once someone _knows_ who they are? Other people shouldn’t question it. Like, for me, I’ve _known_ for sure since sixteen that I was bi. So if someone tries to tell me now that, no, actually I’m just confused or in denial or whatever?” Hans dismissively waved his hand, “Then they can go fuck themselves.”

Kristoff shook his head. “And there are gay guys who believe this?”

“Yes. Not _all_ , of course. But some. And those that do, a lot of times they don’t want anything to do with bi guys. They just kind of roll their eyes and think we have too much baggage and we’re not worth their time.”

“That’s so shitty. Aren’t we all supposed to be a part of the same,” Kristoff gestured vaguely, “community or whatever? Are there gay women who feel this way about bi women?” 

“Not exactly,” Hans shook his head. “Interestingly enough, bi girls get it the other way. People like to say they’re actually straight and are just pretending to be into other girls for attention. Apparently dick is so all powerful that if you like it even just a little then it’s all that you can ever think about.” 

Kristoff chuckled at that. 

“Though now that I’ve gotten to know _your_ dick,” Hans said as he pulled their naked bodies closer together in the bed. “I think they may be onto something.” 

Kristoff laughed harder, that lopsided grin of his spreading across his face. This was good. They were having a difficult conversation but Hans was managing to keep it light hearted. 

“Ok, now the too gay for the straights part?” Kristoff asked. 

“Right. So. There are some straight women out there who refuse to ever hook up with a bisexual guy.”

“Homophobic women, you mean?”

“I mean, _yeah_. If a lady thinks butt sex is the work of the devil, then she’s probably not going to want anything to do with a guy who is queer. But there are other women who will on one hand act all progressive and pro gay rights and then other hand not want anything to do with guys like you and me.”

“T-there are?” Kristoff’s brow creased. “What-, why are they like that?”

“There are a couple of reasons. Some find it emasculating. They think kissing another guy or sucking dick or taking it up the ass makes you less of a man. Which, when it comes to their gay bff’s is no problem. _Buuut_ , when it comes to a guy they might otherwise see as hot and see as a potential hook up,” Hans snapped his fingers. “Makes the attraction dry up just like that.” 

“Huh,” Kristoff blinked a few times. 

“And there are others who believe in old stereotypes,” Hans continued. “They think they’re going to catch something if they sleep with a bi guy.” 

“Has that ever happened to you?” Kristoff asked him. “A girl rejecting you specifically because you’re bi?”

“Yeah,” Hans said plainly. 

“ _Really?_ ” Kristoff’s eyebrows went up. 

“Yeah, it’s happened a couple of times. Do you remember that girl Andrea? From the party last weekend?”

“The one that was all over you?” 

“Yep. Her and I hooked up one time last semester but sexuality never came up. Then we run into each other last Friday night and she's sending me all the signs that she was interested in hooking up again. But, well, then _it_ came up.” 

Hans looked down at where his fingers were tracing patterns in Kristoff’s chest hair. Anger and shame began to stir within him as the image of Andrea’s disgusted face appeared in his mind. The way she had tried to turn it all around on him, tried to act like Hans was the bad guy. That Hans had been in the wrong for simply being who he was and not seeking her approval first. The way Andrea had shouted at him that night and demanded information on his sexual history. 

“And then she didn’t want anything to do with me. She called me _deceitful_ ,” Hans fumed. “All because I didn’t tell her I was bi before having sex with her the first time.” 

“Hans, shit,” Kristoff’s mouth was agape as he gave Hans a small squeeze on the hip. “I’m so sorry that happened to you. And you had no clue she felt this way before you told her?”

“No.” Hans shook his head. “She’s a fucking hypocrite, too. She’ll post pictures on Instagram with her gay best friend like he’s a fashion accessory and be all _hashtag love is love_ and shit like that. But when she finds out the guy she slept with has also fucked dudes? Then suddenly she’s all skeeved out.”

Hans hated how he had looked up Andrea’s social media after that night. Hated how much he let the words of a girl who meant nothing to him get under his skin. 

“And then there are some girls who might be ok with a one night stand or whatever with a bi guy, but would never date one.” Hans continued on, the words rolling out of him and tasting like bile on his tongue. “Because, same fucking thing that I was saying before, they don't think guys can actually be bi. So they see dating someone like us as a risk. That we’re guaranteed to cheat. That they’ll fall in love and then one day we’ll be all ‘whoops, actually I’m gay and only want to be with a dude, sorry about that’ and then break up with them.” 

Kristoff’s face was drawn tight. “H-how many women feel this way?”

“Enough,” Hans spat. “Or even if they don’t, they know other people do so they’re still reluctant to get involved with a bi guy. What girl is going to want everyone she knows snickering behind her back? Thinking ‘oh poor her, she doesn’t realize she’s a beard’ and other horrible shit like that.”

It was no longer Andrea and her look of disgust that Hans was picturing in his mind. It was Vanessa and the pain on her face and the tears in her eyes. The way she had cried and cried and refused to let Hans even touch her. 

_‘You never loved me! It was all a lie and you never even loved me!’_

Kristoff rolled onto his back again and crossed his arms tightly, the movement breaking Hans out of his thoughts. He looked over and saw that Kristoff’s eyebrows were knitted together and his jaw was set tight as he stared up at the ceiling. A bit of guilt crept in as the rage drained out of him. Hans had gotten caught up in his own anger and let himself go on a long, rambling rant. Not the kind of thing a guy who had only just recently come out to himself needed to hear. He reached over and placed a hand on Kristoff’s upper arm. 

“Kris, hey” he said gently, “I know I threw a lot of harsh stuff at you just now. I didn’t mean to scare you. Not everyone is like that. There are accepting people out there. I’ve been with both straight girls and gay guys who were cool with me being bi.” 

“But, what if-,” Kristoff started and then stopped. His eyes stayed fixed on the ceiling and Hans could tell he was chewing on his cheek. 

“What if what?” Hans asked, not wanting Kristoff to keep whatever he was thinking about all bottled up. 

Kristoff turned to look at Hans and he could see the worry and fear etched onto his face. “What if Anna feels that way? What if I come out to her and she’s supportive as, like, a friend but doesn’t want to _be_ with me anymore? Or she gets mad at me the way Andrea got mad at you?”

His heart lurched at Kristoff’s words. _Fuck._ Hans was such a fucking idiot. He hadn’t even considered that this conversation might lead Kristoff’s mind down this path. 

“I, um,” Hans wasn’t sure what to say. “Were you planning on telling her?” 

“I don’t know! Maybe?” Kristoff sat up and pulled his knees to his chest, hugging them. “If there was anyone else I would tell, it would be her.” 

Hans sat up as well, trying to think of a way to undo this. 

“I’m sorry.” Kristoff looked down. “I shouldn’t talk about me and her when you and I are together like this. It’s fucking awkward.” 

“No, it’s ok,” Hans reassured him, rubbing a hand up and down his back. “You can talk to me about it, it’s not awkward I swear.”

Kristoff didn’t say anything, didn’t look up at him. He just sat there with his head hung low. 

“Come on,” Hans gave Kristoff’s arm a shake and tried to sound as upbeat as possible. “This is Anna we’re talking about. Big-hearted Anna. Her sister, the most _important_ person in her life, is a lesbian. And, and she’s friends with _me_. I’ve never heard her say one bad thing to me about me being bi. And remember how happy she was to see Eric on Friday? And remember how she danced with him that night earlier this semester when the four of us hung out?”

Kristoff shook his head, still not meeting Hans’s eye. “But you said Andrea has gay friends. That even if a girl doesn’t seem outwardly homophobic she could still have hang ups about sleeping with a guy who is, is…” 

_Fuck._ Kristof was back to struggling to even say the word. 

“Anna is nothing like Andrea,” Hans said firmly. “Andrea is a fucking bitch. _Please_ , listen to me, I don’t think you have anything to worry about with Anna.”

“You _think_ but you don’t _know_ ,” Kristoff snapped. 

Hans flinched. He did know, of course. He knew that Anna was ok with being with bi guy because she was with one every Saturday night - him. Hans just could tell him. One quick sentence - _‘Anna and I have been having sex’_ \- and he could wipe away all the fear and pain currently on Kristoff’s face. 

But Hans couldn’t bring himself to say the words. 

It would mean breaking his promise to Anna, of course, but that wasn’t the only thing holding him back. That same fear he felt Friday night was washing over him again, of what would happen if all the secrets started coming out. The possibility that he could lose both of them in one fell swoop caused his stomach to clench. Hans knew that at some point in time this whole _thing_ he had going on with the two of them would need to come to an end. He just wasn’t ready for that to happen yet. 

“No,” Hans said softly. “No, you’re right. I don’t know for sure.”

A pained expression passed over Kristoff’s face as he looked back down. “I have to tell her. I owe it to her,” he said solemnly. “In case it’s something that makes her uncomfortable.” 

“Kristoff, _no_.” 

Kristoff closed his eyes and shook his head. “Hans, come on.”

“No, _you_ come on. Listen to me.” Hans pulled on Kristoff’s arm and forced him to look at him. “Anna is one of my closest friends, ok? She’s one of the kindest people I’ve ever met. So please believe me that if I’m saying this about _her_ , then I really mean it. You don’t _owe_ coming out to her. You don’t owe it to anyone. No one is entitled to know what anyone else’s sexuality is.” Hans gave Kristoff’s arm a squeeze. “You tell people when _you’re_ ready. Please, don’t ever come out before you’re ready. Because once it’s out, you can’t take it back.”

Kristoff didn’t say anything in response. 

Hans felt crushed by how terribly he had handled this conversation. He wanted so badly to help Kristoff with these things. To be there for him in a way that no one had ever been there for Hans. Instead he had left Kristoff with even more fear and doubt than before. And worse more, he had done something that could damage the relationship between Anna and Kristoff. 

Ironic as it may be, considering he was sleeping with both of them behind the others’ backs, there was a part of Hans that wanted things to work out between Anna and Kristoff in the long run. They were both amazing people and deserved each other. He hoped it wouldn’t happen for a while though, that he’d get to continue having them both for at least the rest of this current semester. He knew he couldn’t hope for much more than that though. It was something that Hans had told himself from the beginning, that if the two of them ever wanted something more with each other that he’d quickly step back and not get in the way. 

Hans kissed Kristoff on the shoulder and ran a hand through his hair. “Come on, let’s go get something to eat and you’ll feel better. We can go to DQ, get Sunday sundaes like you like.”

Kristoff sighed and leaned into Hans, letting the sides of their foreheads bump together. “Ok.”

~

Kristoff had been quiet the whole ride to and back from DQ, and he was being quiet now as they sat on the couch and ate their food. He was normally a quiet guy, of course, but this was more quiet even than usual. It was a heavy sort of quiet. 

There was a look of concentration on Kristoff’s face as he stared off into nothingness. Hans felt like he had to do something. It was his fault that Kristoff was lost in own head right now so he had to be the one to fix it. He didn’t trust his words to be any comfort, not with how badly he had done with that earlier. Actions though, Hans knew he was good at actions. 

He put his food down and scooted closer to Kristoff on the couch. Hans placed the tip of his finger on the back of Kristoff’s hand and then slowly and gently trailed it up his arm. He felt Kristoff shiver and then he finally looked over at him. 

“What are you doing?” Kristoff asked. His tone was curious instead of harsh, so Hans felt comfortable continuing on. 

“I want attention,” Hans said playfully. Kristoff snorted, but not in a ‘get away from me’ kind of a way. Hans ran his finger tip down and then back up Kristoff’s arm and felt goosebumps prickle up under his touch. Leaning forward, he pressed a kiss to the hollow of Kristoff’s neck, earning a sharp inhale. Hans went up Kristoff’s neck with his kisses and then moved along his jaw. As he neared his mouth, Hans paused and waited. Kristoff hovered for a moment before closing the distance and joining their mouths together. 

“You taste like French fries,” Kristoff said plainly after the kiss. 

“Hmm,” Hans hummed seductively in response as he ran a hand up Kristoff’s thigh. “You know just what to say to get a guy all hot and bothered.”

Kristoff laughed, a smile brightening up his face. It felt like a victory. Hans returned to kissing at his neck, using his tongue and teeth to melt Kristoff even further. With a breathy sigh, Kristoff wove his arm around the back of Hans’s waist and began to pull him into his lap. Hans went willingly, cupping Kristoff’s face and kissing his lips as two strong arms held him tight. 

They both jumped and pulled back from their kissing at the sound of knocking at the front door. 

“You expecting someone?” Hans asked, almost joking. But then Kristoff’s eyes went wide and fear passed across his face.

“Oh shit,” he said, dread in his voice. Kristoff shifted Hans to the side a bit and looked past him. “Oh _shit!_ ”

“What?” Hans turned his head to see what Kristoff was looking at. There, on the corner of the coffee table, was a textbook that he recognized as being the one from their Western Civ class. Stacked underneath the textbook was a notebook, but it wasn’t a spiral notebook like Kristoff always used for his classes. It was a marble notebook, which Hans knew was always used by...

Hans whipped his head in the direction of the door as a couple of more knocks echoed through the apartment. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up as it finally clicked for him who was standing on the other side. 

_Oh shit._


	40. Chapter 40

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anna gets a surprise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of self promo to start out: The first chapter of my Christmas fic, A Frozen Christmas Carol, is up and can be found [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27898675/chapters/68316274).

Anna had spent the majority of her Sunday avoiding doing the one thing that she knew she absolutely _needed_ to do that day. It was the day she had to go and talk to Madison. Anna had to go and tell one of her best friends that she had once slept with her boyfriend. _And_ that said boyfriend was now trying to sleep with Anna again and had gotten handsy with her at a party.

She had started off the day getting breakfast with Ryder in the dining hall. That wasn’t her avoiding talking to Madison though. Anna always got breakfast with Ryder. After that Anna spent some time getting caught up on reading assignments for her classes. Which, again, totally normal and definity _not_ a sign that she was procrastinating. Once Anna had gotten herself caught up on school work, she had begun to clean up her side of the room. Picking up all her clothes off the floor and sorting them into ‘mostly clean’ or ‘needs to be washed’, organizing all the papers on her desk, making her bed, dusting, and ok, yes, now she was absolutely just procrastinating because Anna couldn’t remember the last time she ever actually _dusted_. 

Morning had passed to midday and midday had passed to afternoon. It was soon going to be time for her and Ryder to head over to Elsa and Maren’s for their weekly Sunday family dinners. Anna needed to do this now. Like, right now. 

Anna steeled herself as she walked down the hallway from her room to Madison’s room. She took a deep breath as she knocked on her friend’s door, trying to remember everything that her and Elsa had gone over the night before. 

Madison opened the door and instantly smiled when she saw it was Anna. “Hey, how are you? We missed you last night.”

“I’m good, thank you,” Anna answered, forcing a smile in return. “Can we talk? If you’re not busy that is. If you’re busy I can just leave.”

“Yeah, no, I wasn’t doing anything. Come on in.” Madison waved her in and Anna closed the door behind her. “So, what’s up?” 

“There is something I need to tell you. It’s, um,” Anna pulled a bit at the ends of her hair. “It’s about Joe.” 

Anna could see Madison stiffen. “About Joe _how?_ ”

“Well, before I say anything, I want to first say how much I value our friendship. You were one of the first people I met at freshman orientation and you’ve become one of my closest friends here at school. And because of that I-,”

“Anna,” Madison said, cutting her off. She had a worried expression on her face. “Can you skip whatever this preamble is and just get to the point?”

“Oh. Um, ok,” Anna refocused her thoughts. “The night that you introduced me to Joe wasn’t actually the first time we ever met. We met once at a party last semester. And on that night we, um, we went home together.”

Madison’s face dropped. “You had sex with Joe?”

“Yes, but not recently,” Anna assured her. “Like I said this was last semester so-,” 

“Why didn’t you say anything to me right away?” Madison took a step back from Anna, her hands squeezing into fists. 

“I didn’t know!”

“What?” She looked at Anna baffled. “You didn’t know that you fucked him? That makes no sense.” 

“No I knew I had sex with him I just didn’t know him was _him_. Like I knew he was _a_ Joe but when you talked about _your_ Joe I didn’t know they were the _same_ Joe until I was actually face to face with him.”

“But,” Madison rubbed her forehead. “But even before I introduced him to you I would talk about him with you. I told you a lot of stuff about him. Surely you would have connected the dots and realized that it was the same guy.”

“Right, well, see,” Anna twisted her hands together. “To be honest, I never really know him that well. It was only just that one night.”

Madison sneered at her. “How often _do_ you sleep with guys you barely know?”

Anna felt herself wilt. The words that Joe said to her Friday night played over in her mind. _‘You forget that I know the kind of girl you are.’_

“Are you even sure Joe is the guy you had sex with?” Madison asked, crossing her arms tight in front of her body. “Maybe you’re just mistaking him with one of your other one night stands.” 

“No, no it’s definity him. Because, well, something happened.” Anna paused for a moment. There was something else that she had wanted to say before getting into what happened the other night, but she felt so thrown off now that she couldn’t remember. Didn’t matter. She just needed to get this out. “This is why I wanted to talk to you, why I felt like I _needed_ to tell you everything. On Friday night I ran into him at a party and he was, well, he got a bit aggressive with me.”

“Aggressive how?”

“He was saying things that made it clear he wanted to, um, that he wanted him and I to, ya know, have sex again,” Anna could hear her voice waivering as Madison’s eye bore into her. “And then he grabbed my arm and yanked on it when I tried to walk away from him.” 

“No.” Madison shook her head. “Joe would never do something like that. He’s a good guy. And besides, what you’re saying doesn’t even make sense. Joe didn’t go out Friday night. I was texting with him. He said he was feeling sick so he stayed in.”

Anna took a breath. This wasn’t going to be easy to say, or easy for her friend to hear. “I think he lied to you, Madison. He tried to cheat on you with me so he-, he’s likely cheated on you with other girls.”

“No, no,” she shook her head again. Madison turned so that she was facing away from Anna, but Anna could still see how tightly she had her arms crossed and how her shoulders were now hitched up. 

Madison was upset. But, _of course_ she was upset. Who wouldn’t be upset to learn such things about someone they were dating? It must be a shock. There would be heartbreak over the ending of a relationship. Embarrassment too, to know that one was so easily fooled by a guy. Anna felt some guilt at being the one that had to tell Madison these things, but it was best that she knew. Madison was her friend, so Anna needed to be there for her. To help her get over this, to help fix things. 

“I am so sorry all of this happened,” Anna said, wanting to fill the silence. “But, like I was saying before, you are one of my closest friends here at school. I would hate for some jerk guy to ever come between us. I know I should have told you sooner, and I’m sorry that I didn’t. But I’m here and I’m telling you now because I care about you. And you deserve to be with someone so much better than Joe.” 

Madison didn’t say anything and didn’t turn to look back at Anna. 

“But, but, we can find a way to forget all about him,” Anna continued on. “We can have a girls night. Get some pints of ice cream and make a bunch of popcorn and watch some silly romcom movies and-,” 

“I don’t want to watch fucking movies with you, Anna!” Madison snapped. As she turned back around Anna could see tears shimmering in her eyes. “I think you should go.”

Anna was stunned. She stood there motionless for a moment, trying to think of the right thing to do or say. 

“Just go!” Madison shouted eventually, the tears beginning to roll down her cheeks. 

Without another word, Anna quickly turned and left. She walked back into her room in a near daze. When she got there she sank down into her desk chair and stared blankly into the distance. That went completely, totally, absolutely the worst possible way it could go. Anna closed her eyes and took a couple of deep breaths. It was ok. It was going to be ok. Her and Madison were friends. This was just a bump in the road. Anna could fix it. 

~

Later that evening, as they walked to Elsa and Maren’s, Anna gave Ryder a full run down of the disaster of a conversation with Madison. 

“Did you want me to try to talk to Chloe about all this?” he asked. “And then maybe she could try talking to Madison? Chloe could put in a good word for you and point out how much of an asshole Joe is. Madison might be more receptive if it was coming from someone who was not… you.” 

Anna winced and looked down at her feet. 

“Not that there's anything wrong with you, of course,” Ryder added quickly. “I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant it might be good for Madison to hear from someone who wasn’t a part of the whole _thing_. To get the perspective of a neutral third party.”

“Maybe.” Anna thought about it for a moment but then shook her head. “Actually, no. I don’t know if Madison would want everyone to know about what Joe did. It might be embarrassing. She might prefer to just quietly dump him and move on. If she’s already a little upset with me, then I don’t want to make it worse by having her think I was spreading gossip about her.”

“That makes sense,” Ryder nodded. 

As Anna looked forward again, she noticed that they were approaching The Trading Post. Seeing the bar reminded her of Kristoff’s text from the day before. 

“Hey, I left some books at Kristoff’s that I need. You mind if we swing by his place to pick them up? He’s only two blocks this way.” Anna gestured down the side street with her thumb 

“Yeah,” Ryder said with a shrug. “We’re early anyway.” 

The two turned the corner and began walking towards Kristoff’s apartment. 

~

Ryder waited out on the sidewalk as Anna went up to Kristoff’s front door. She knocked a few times in quick succession and then rocked back and forth on her feet with her hands clasped in front of her body. Waiting. When there was no answer she decided to knock again. But, again, nothing. Strange. She always thought Kristoff spent his Sundays doing school work and studying. She probably should have texted him first. 

Anna was about to assume he wasn’t home and walk away when she heard movement and muffled voices from inside. If Kristoff was home, why wasn’t he answering the door? A sudden panic hit her. What if Kristoff was with a girl? He was allowed to be with other girls, of course. But the idea of coming face to face one? Of actually seeing what some other girl who shared Kristoff’s bed and Kristoff’s affections looked like? Of hearing what her voice sounded like and maybe even having to watch the two of them interact? It made Anna nauseous. 

How invasive of her to just show up at his place unannounced like this. This was a bad idea. Anna should just go. She was about to turn and run away when the door suddenly swung open. Anna instantly stiffened up, trying not to let her alarm show. 

“Hi,” Kristoff said, looking a bit flustered. He only had the door open a bit and he was standing in such a way that his body filled the whole opening. 

“Hi,” she responded. For a moment they just stared at each other. Anna obviously needed to talk next, considering she was the one who knocked on his door. “Um. You texted me yesterday about how I left my Western Civ books here?” 

“Right. Of course.” Kristoff seemed to hesitate for a moment before stepping back and opening the door wider for her. 

She took a breath. Her nerves were already raw from her conversation with Madison, but she was going to need to face whatever - or whoever - was here with maturity. 

The first thing Anna noticed as she stepped into Kristoff’s apartment was that there was a baseball game on the TV. The second thing she noticed was that Kristoff was, in fact, not alone. But instead of it being another girl it was...

“Hans?” Anna asked, relief washing over her at the sight of him. 

“Hi,” he said, giving her a half smile and a small wave. Hans was sitting cross legged on the couch, holding a DQ cup in his lap. Anna could see that the coffee table had take-out containers all over it. 

“You guys,” Anna glanced between them, “you guys hanging out?” She had no idea that Kristoff and Hans ever spent time together on their own without her. 

“We weren’t excluding you,” Kristoff said quickly. “We only wanted to watch, um,” he gestured at the TV, “some baseball and we didn’t think you’d be interested. And, aren’t” he scratched at the back of his neck, “Aren’t you always at your sister’s on Sundays?”

Kristoff was acting nervous, like he just got caught doing something wrong. He was likely feeling bad that they didn’t invite her to hang out with them. But, Anna wasn’t bothered by it at all. In fact, she found it kind of nice that the two of them had their guy time. 

“It’s ok,” she gave him a reassuring smile and rub on the arm. “I don’t feel excluded. Seriously. And you’re right, I’m heading over to Elsa and Maren’s right now so I wouldn’t have been able to join you anyway. Also, I totally should have texted before coming over. That’s my bad, I’m sorry.”

“No, no, it’s fine,” Kristoff waved his hand. “You’re good.”

“So,” Anna said after a moment of silence. “My books?”

“Yeah,” Kristoff said, pointing over into the living room. 

“Right.” Hans put his cup down and picked up her books before walking to her and handing them over. 

“Thank you,” she said, taking them and hugging them to her chest. “Do you guys do this a lot? Hang out and watch sports?”

“No,” Hans said at the same time Kristoff said, “Sometimes.” 

“Um,” Hans blinked.

“Well, see,” Kristoff added. 

Hans pointed over his shoulder back towards the TV. “This is an important game, so.”

“Yep.” Kristoff nodded. “Yeah. So we figured, get some food, watch it together. Which we do, not _a lot_ , but sometimes. When it’s a big game, that is.”

“Oh, ok,” Anna said, glancing over at the TV. She didn’t really follow baseball enough to know when all the important games were. 

Hans cleared his throat. “You were going to talk to Madison today, right? How’d that go?”

“Yeah,” Anna cringed. “That went not great.”

“No?” Kristoff looked at her, concerned. 

“Nah, but,” Anna waved her hand. “I think it was just a lot for her to take in, ya know? I imagine it must be really hard to have to hear all that kind of stuff about a guy you thought you trusted.” 

“Right,” Kristoff nodded, as he stuck his hands in his pockets. 

“I’m not worried about it, though,” Anna continued. “I’m going to give her a little space to process it all and cool off. And then everything will be back to normal between us.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Kristoff assured her. 

“Yeah,” Hans smiled at her. “One day the two of you will laugh about this whole thing.”

“I hope so.” Anna bounced on her feet as she hugged her books to her chest. It was fine. It was going to be fine. Like she said, Madison would cool off eventually and then Anna would find a way to fix things. 

“Well, I’ll let you two get back to your _guy time_ and your important game.” 

She gave them each a one armed hug, as she was holding her books in the other arm, and they said their goodbyes. 

{ ~ }

“Everything good?” Ryder asked Anna as she joined him back on the sidewalk. “You were in there for a bit.”

“Yep,” Anna said as they began to walk. “Just chatting for a bit. Hans was there, him and Kristoff were hanging out and watching baseball.”

Ryder felt like making a sarcastic comment, ‘So Hans _is_ capable of making friends, huh?’ or something like that. But he kept it to himself, not wanting to say anything that could upset Anna when she was already having a bad day. 

{ ~ }

Hans let out a breath and felt his shoulders relax as Kristoff closed the door behind Anna. 

When she had first knocked on the door they had a split second decision to make. For a moment they had considered Hans hiding in either the bedroom or bathroom before Kristoff answered the door. But if Anna had ended up wanting to go into either room while she was here, then his hiding would have been too suspicious for them to ever explain away. Instead they just played it off as two buddies hanging out. And, thankfully, their plan appeared to have worked. 

Kristoff didn’t seem to be feeling as good about it as Hans did, though. He was leaning on his hands which were splayed out on the back of the door, his arm locked out straight and his head hung low between them. Hans couldn’t see his face, so he wasn’t entirely sure what emotion Kristoff was feeling right now. 

“Kris?” he asked cautiously as he took a step closer to him. 

“That was so close,” Kristoff said, his voice sounding brittle. 

“But it’s fine,” Hans placed a hand on his back. “We’re ok. She didn’t suspect a thing.”

“I-I, I can’t...” Kristoff shook his head.

Hans felt his heart drop. _‘I can’t do this anymore.’_ Is that what Kristoff was about to tell him? Was this over? 

“I can’t come out to her yet. I’m not ready.” Kristoff’s words brought Hans momentary relief, but it still pained him to see Kristoff in such distress. “I’m not ready for her to know. I’m not ready for anyone else to know. I-, I thought I might be but, but, I’m not ready. I’m not, I-,” there was a hitch in his voice before he trailed off. 

“Hey.” Hans slipped under one of Kristoff’s arms so that he could stand directly in front of him. “Then you’re not ready. That’s ok.” 

Kristoff still kept his eyes closed and his head low. Hans reached his arms around Kristoff’s middle and pulled him into a hug. 

“It’s ok. I know what it feels like to be not ready and-,” Hans closed his own eyes. Old, bad memories threatened to flood his mind, but he pushed them away. He needed to stay focused on Kristoff. “And it’s ok. Everyone is ready in their own time.” 

Kristoff dropped his hands away from the door and finally hugged Hans back, giving him a squeeze. 

“I’m sorry,” Kristoff said quietly. 

“Sorry?” Hans asked, his voice slightly muffled by having his face against the front of Kristoff’s shirt. “Why are you saying sorry to _me?_ ”

“I want you to be proud of me.”

“I _am_ proud of you,” Hans pulled back just enough to look at Kristoff’s face. He brought his hands up to the other man’s cheeks. “Kris, come on, look at me.” 

Kristoff slowly blinked open glassy eyes. 

“I am _so_ proud of you, ok?” Hans told him.   
“Think about how far you’ve come in such a short time.”

He only nodded in response. Hans searched his mind trying to find something that could make Kristoff smile. 

“Hey,” he said, an idea coming to him. “Think back to the day of the lacrosse home opener, after the game when we met up on the field and you had that bout of bi panic. Back then did you ever think you’d be where you are now?”

That drew a small huff of a laugh from Kristoff. “You noticed that that day, huh?”

“Just a little,” Hans said with a wink. He could feel some of the tension in Kristoff’s body ease up. 

“Yeah, you’re right. Thank you,” Kristoff said, pulling him back into a hug. “Thank you for everything.”

Hans hugged him back tight, the guilt making his heart feel like lead.


	41. Chapter 41

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shit meets fan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Content warning: slut shaming; references to acephobia]

Anna was jolted from sleep by a banging on her door. Fighting with the sheets, she finally snapped into consciousness. She checked her phone, trying to orientate herself - Monday, 8:12 AM. Looking across the room she saw that her roommate’s bed was empty. Right, Rebecca had 8:00 AM class on Mondays. Anna didn’t have her first class until midmorning and would normally set her alarm for 8:30 AM on these days. 

“Anna! Open up!” a voice called from the hallway as the banging continued. 

Not knowing who it could be or what could possibly be wrong, she scrambled off her bed. Anna turned on her lights and blinked as her eyes adjusted to them before opening the door. There she found Madison staring back at her, her face like stone. 

“We need to talk. _Now_ ,” she said firmly as she brushed past Anna and into the room. 

“Wha-, what’s going on?” Anna asked, still slightly disoriented. “Why are you here so early?”

“I came to talk to you as soon as I got back to the dorms.” Madison stopped in the middle of the room and turned on her heels to face Anna again. 

“Got… _back?_ ” Anna blinked. “Where were you?”

“I spent the night at Joe’s.”

_Oh shit._

“After our little _conversation_ yesterday, I went over to his place to talk to him. To confront him. And he told me the truth, he told me everything!” Madison was nearly vibrating as she talked, as if there were something seething and bubbling just under the surface. “He admitted, yes, that he slept with you one time last semester. _But_ , he said that he has absolutely no interest in sleeping with you again. He said that _you’re_ the one that’s been trying to sleep with _him_ ”. 

“ _What?_ Madison, no,” Anna shook her head. “He’s lying to you.”

“You’ve been trying to blackmail him,” she continued, not listening to Anna. “Telling him that if he didn’t sleep with you again then you would come to me with lies trying to break us up.”

“That’s cra-,” 

“But he didn’t do it!” Tears were starting to form at the corners of Madison’s eyes. “He didn’t have sex with you. He would never try to cheat on me. He _loves_ me! He told me so last night. So he kept turning you down. And what did you do in response? Just what you threaten to do. You came to me and told me lies about him.” 

Anna felt stunned and overwhelmed as she listened to everything, unable to understand how Madison could believe all of these things about her. 

“And at that party on Friday night, _you_ were the one trying to hook up with _him_. And he didn’t grab your arm either, or whatever bullshit you said. You’re the one that got physical with _him_. And then, when he turned you down again, you felt embarrassed and had those two guys you’re friends with rough him up.”

“That’s not true!”

“They didn’t rough him up?”

“I-, well, they-,” Anna reached up and tugged on the ends of her hair. “They did a bit, yes. But they were just defending me.”

“Ah,” Madison smiled as if Anna’s admission was some kind of victory. “How convenient that you just happened to leave that out of your original story.”

“Madison, please, listen to me.” Anna took a step closer to her. “Joe is bad news ok? He’s lying to you. Why would I ever try to steal your boyfriend? How could you think that I would do something like that?”

“Because you’re kinda a slut, Anna.”

It felt like a stab to the chest. Anna’s mouth hung open, unable to form words. 

“Stay away from me and stay away from my boyfriend,” Madison said in a threatening tone. “Or else we’re really going to have a problem.” 

She then moved quickly towards the door and Anna had to jump back to get out of her way. 

“Oh, and one more thing,” Madison looked back over her shoulder at Anna, a sadistic smile playing on her face. “Joe told me all about your _other_ little secret, too. And there is no fucking way I’m keeping _that_ to myself.” And with that he was gone. 

Anna felt her stomach drop. _Hans._ But, no, how could Joe possibly know about that? Because Hans had defended her at the party? He had slammed Joe into a wall pretty hard that night. Anna took a couple of deep breaths and ran her hands through her hair. Ok, ok, what does she do? What does she do right now? She still had class this morning. She still had to go take a shower, get dressed, get all her shit together. 

_Go do that_ , she told herself, _then go get some breakfast and then you’ll be able to think of a way to fix this._

Tears were beginning to prickle at her eyes but she steeled herself as she picks up her shower caddy and bathrobe. 

{ ~ }

Ryder was loading his backpack up with his books for his morning classes when he heard a knock at the door. He opened it to find Chloe standing there, her hands clasped in front of her body. 

“What a nice surprise,” Ryder said, feeling that warm bloom in his chest that he always felt whenever he saw her. 

“Can we talk?” she asked as she walked in. 

“Yeah, of course,” he said, closing the door behind her. 

“Ryder,” Chloe took both of his hands in hers. “I have a question for you and I need you to be completely, totally, absolutely honest with me right now.”

“Ok,” Ryder responded slowly, starting to feel worried. 

“Have you been sleeping with Anna?”

“What?” He couldn’t believe she was asking him this. “ _No_ , of course not. Where is this coming from?”

“Madison told me that Joe told her that Anna told him that you were and also Joe said that that night - not this past Saturday but the Saturday before that, the night we were all at The Trading Post - that he saw you and Anna openly flirting with each other.”

Ryder shook his head, trying to process all of the information in her run-on sentence at once. Fucking Joe, that lying asshole. “None of that is true,” he told her. “Anna is like a sister to me. And that’s not what happened that night. Joe was being creepy with Anna so I chased him off.”

Chloe scoffed. “I doubt she actually wanted him chased off. Did you know that she slept with him?”

“Who told you about that?”

“Madison,” she answered, but then her face changed as something clicked. “Wait, did you already know?”

“Yeah.” 

“You knew about all of this and you never said anything to me?” she asked, sounding more upset. 

“Anna told me in confidence. I promised her I wouldn’t say anything to anyone.” Ryder was starting to doubt himself a bit. Had it been wrong to keep it all a secret from Chloe? 

“Did she also tell you that she’s been trying to get him to sleep with her again? Trying to get him to _cheat_ on Madison?” 

“No fucking way,” Ryder shook his head. “She wants nothing to do with that guy. Do you actually believe all this bullshit that Joe told Madison?” 

Chloe shrugged. “You know how Anna is.”

“What does that mean?” Ryder asked, somewhat hesitant and not really liking her implication. 

“I mean, she’s always loved being the center of attention. Is it really that big of a leap to think that she’d get jealous of Joe being with Madison and try to steal him back? That’s probably also why she was flirting with you. She’s jealous that I’m with you.”

“Anna isn’t-, she was so happy for us when I first told her-,” Ryder stared at Chloe in disbelief. “Anna is your friend. How could you say that kind of stuff about her?”

“I’ve always been closer friends with Madison than with Anna, and Madison is feeling really hurt right now. She’s my friend and I need to be on her side with this.”

“Anna is your friend, too.” Ryder was starting to feel exasperation building up inside of him. How could Chloe be seeing this situation so wrong? 

“Not anymore,” she shook her head. “Not after what she’s done to Madison. And, to be honest,” Chloe paused and moved closer to him, resting her hands on his chest. “Look, I believe you. When you tell me that you’re not sleeping with her, I believe you and I trust you.” She moved a hand up and cupped his cheek. “But I don’t trust her. She’s going to try to sleep with you, I know it, so I don’t want you hanging around her anymore.”

Ryder took hold of Chloe’s wrist and gently pulled her hand away from his face. “Are you saying I need to choose between you and Anna?” 

“I don’t think it should be that hard of a choice,” she responded, almost as if she was annoyed that he had asked the question in the first place. 

Ryder felt totally blindsided as he looked at her, this girl that he had felt himself falling for. How could she actually be like this? How could she believe these things about Anna? How could she so easily toss away a friendship over some rumors? And expect Ryder to do the same? How had he so misjudged her true nature?

“You’re right. It’s not a hard choice.” Ryder stepped back from her, breaking all contact between them. “We’re done.”

Chloe blanched. “ _What?_ ”

“We’re done,” Ryder repeated. He clenched his hands so tight into fists at his sides that he could feel his fingernails digging into his palms. Anything to distract him from the crushing feeling in his chest. 

“You can’t be serious right now,” Chloe said, anger flashing in her eyes. 

“I think you should leave.” Ryder didn’t want a whole big argument here. It was all heart-wrenching enough as it was. He just wanted her to _go_. 

“Oh my god, you _are_ sleeping with her!” she shouted at him. 

“I’m _not_. But she’s my best friend, she’s _family_ , and I’m not going to turn my back on her.”

“Fine,” Chloe huffed. “Goodbye! _Asshole_.” She spun on her heels and headed out the door then, slamming it closed behind her. 

Ryder walked forward to the door and rested his forehead against it. He lifted his head slightly and then allowed it to fall back against the door again with a light thud. 

_Fuck._

“Whore!” he heard Chloe’s voice shout from the other side. 

Ryder quickly opened the door and stepped into the hallway. Anna was standing there shocked as Chloe stared daggers at her. 

“Leave her alone,” Ryder called to Chloe. “She didn’t do anything wrong.”

Chloe glared back at Ryder before returning her attention to Anna. “You can have him!” she spat before stomping off. Anna watched Chloe go and then looked at Ryder with wide eyes, her hand clutching to the strap of her bag. 

“Wha-, what just happened?” 

{ ~ }

Anna’s last class of the afternoon was done and she was sitting alone in the library trying to get some work done, but the day’s events had left her feeling hollow. The “secret” that Joe had told Madison had nothing to do with Anna sleeping with Hans. It was instead a lie, a horrible lie about her and Ryder that was currently burning a whole through Anna’s life. 

The rumours had spread like wildfire through the dorm and by the afternoon everyone in their friend group knew the two sides to the story. And everyone was taking Madison’s side - that Anna was backstabbing slut, trying to sleep with both of the guys that her two closest friends were dating. Some people claimed that they saw this coming, that they always assumed Anna and Ryder were sleeping together on the downlow because of how close they were. Anna suspected others were just going along with the crowd. It didn’t matter though, Anna and Ryder were now the bad guys, completely ostracized from the group. 

This was all Anna’s fault. In delaying telling Madison what had happened Friday night, Anna had given Joe time to plan his counterstory. He had had all of Saturday and Sunday to plan out a web of lies. Not just something that would save his own skin, but something crafted to cause as much pain to Anna as possible. 

She had tried to apologize to Ryder, tried to tell him how awful she felt about being responsible for his breakup with Chloe. Ryder had told her that she didn’t need to be sorry though, that none of it was her fault. And that also it was better to learn now the kind of person Chloe was then to find out later. He acknowledged that it hurt, a lot, but that in the long run it would be for the best. 

He was always so optimistic. Always saw the best in people and the best in situations. Ryder was such a good guy and he didn’t deserve any of this. 

The thoughts caught a fresh swell of tears to collect in her eyes. Anna dug into her bag and found a tissue to wipe her eyes. She was _not_ going to cry in the library. Anna breathed in and out and tried to think happy thoughts. Her mind went back to Friday night - her and Hans and Kristoff taking turns giving each other piggyback rides while totally wasted. Anna smiled at the memory. 

“Hey, Anna. Mind if I join you?” she heard a cheerful voice ask. Looking up she saw that it was Merida. 

“Hi,” Anna said, hoping her eyes didn’t look too red. “Yes, of course, sit.” It appeared that she wasn’t convincing enough as Merida gave her a curious look. 

“Anna, is…” Merida began in a cautious voice. “Is everything ok?” 

“Yeah,” Anna said, but her voice cracked over the word and tears began to well up in her eyes again. “No.” 

Merida sat down in the chair closest to Anna. “Hey, hey, it’s ok,” she said, putting a hand on her shoulder. 

“Oh _god_ ,” Anna covered her face with both hands. “I’m sorry. I feel like such a loser, crying in the library.”

“No, it’s ok,” Merida said, collecting up Anna’s books and putting them away in her bag for her. “Come on, let’s go to the student union. It’s a much less embarrassing place to cry.”

Anna let out a few laughs as she wiped away her tears. “Thank you.”

~

When they got to the student union, their first stop was the Starbucks on the main level. Anna got a hot chocolate with whipped cream and Merida got a black coffee. They then went down to the lounge on the lower level and found a couch in a quiet corner to talk. Anna told Merida the whole story, everything about Joe and Madison and Chloe and Ryder.

“These girls kinda sound like bitches,” Merida said, looking a bit pissed off on Anna’s behalf. “Sorry, I know they were your friends. And that Joe is for sure the worst person in all of this but… yeah, bitches. Why were you friends with them to begin with?”

“Well, they live on the same floor as me,” Anna said, crossing her legs. “And they were sitting near me at freshman orientation. And they’re fun to go drinking with. And, and,” Anna blanked. Had her friendships with them really been that hollow and superficial? “Ok, so maybe I don’t have many good reasons. I just hate the idea of losing all these friends in one fell swoop.”

“You haven’t lost all your friends, though. That Ryder guy sounds like a really great, loyal friend. And you have Kristoff and Hans. And,” Merida twisted her cup around in her hands. “And, and _we’re_ friends, right?”

“Yes,” Anna smiled and nudged her shoulder with her own. “Yes, absolutely we’re friends. And you’re right. Plus, Ryder made a point that if this is them showing their true colors, then maybe it’s all for the best.” 

“I think he’s right,” Merida said, tucking some of her wild hair back behind her ear. “Are you starting to feel better?”

“A bit, yes.” Anna took another sip of her hot chocolate and then pursed her lips together. “But also, no, not totally. It still bothers me, like, it’s still total bullshit that Joe is getting away with all this. But also, I was so wrong about things. I was wrong about my first impressions of Joe. I was wrong about my friendships with Madison and Chloe and all the rest of them. So much of what I thought college was going to be like has turned out to be wrong.” Anna had also thought she would never get attached to _any_ guy, but now she was feeling attached to _two_ guys. She didn’t want to talk about _that_ though. “It’s also, it’s not just college,” she continued on, “My parents are getting divorced. They told me and my sister when we were home for mid semester break. It was a total shock to me.” 

“Oh wow,” Merida said, giving her a sympathetic look. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Yeah. I’ve come to accept it for what it is now. But it’s the fact that I didn’t ever think it would happen. It’s just, just…”

“It makes you think: ‘What else am I wrong about?’” Merida offered. 

“ _Yes!_ Exactly. And, _god_ , it’s scary.” 

“Yeah, I get that.” Merida nodded. “But, maybe that’s not such a bad thing.”

“Being wrong about things isn’t bad?”

“I mean, _yes_ , being wrong about something you thought was good is bad. But being wrong about something you thought was bad… can be good.” Merida paused for a moment, staring off into nothing. “Did that make any sense?” 

“Yeah,” Anna said slowly. “That actually makes a lot of sense.”

There was still some guilt in her. That ultimately she had still caused this whole situation because it all started with her and Joe sleeping together last semester. What a huge fucking mstake that had been, sleeping with him after only knowing him a few hours. Madison had called her a slut today, and Chloe had called her a whore. Anna knew she was far from a prude, but she also wasn’t _that_ , was she? She wondered what Merida thought. 

“Do, um, do you think it’s bad to sleep with a guy you only just met that night? Like what I did with Joe?” Anna asked her. “Like do you that’s bad or dumb or, um, whatever?” 

Merida seemed to ponder that for a moment. “No, I don’t think that in and of itself is bad. Sure, Joe turned out to be an asshole, but you can just as easily sleep with a guy right away and he turns out to be amazing. Plus how long has Madison known him now and she’s still getting fooled by him.”

“That’s true.” Anna felt better at that. “Have you ever done it? Had sex with guy you only just met?”

“No,” Merida said plainly before taking another sip of her coffee. 

“Oh,” Anna looked down at her drink in her lap. 

“But then again, I’ve never slept with any guy ever, so,” Merida shrugged. 

Anna blinked as she looked up. “Never?”

Merida just shook her head in response, letting out a small little laugh. Something clicked in Anna’s brain and a horrible embarrassment swept over her. 

“Oh, oh my god,” she said, feeling her face turning red. “I’m such an idiot, I’m so sorry. I promise I normally know better than to just make assumptions. My sister is a lesbian too, so, I do know better.”

“It’s fine,” Merida said with a wave of her hand. “And, just for the record, I’m not lesbian. I’m ace.”

“Ace?”

“Asexual.” 

“Oh.” Anna wasn’t sure what to say, she had never met an asexual person before. So, of course, her brain decided to blurt out something supid with, “Oh god, you must really think I’m a slut then.”

“No, no,” Merida laughed. “It’s not like that. Just because I never want to have sex with anyone doesn’t mean I think it’s this evil, awful thing for other people.”

“Shit,” Anna winced. “I keep sticking my foot in my mouth. I’m sorry. I feel like I’m being such an insensitive jerk.”

“It’s ok.” Merida gave her a sad smile. “Your reaction is a lot better than most people’s reactions, though. They usually say shit like I’m just too repressed, or that I just haven’t met the right person yet, or that if I just had sex once then I would know how great it is and want to do it all the time. People don’t think asexuality is a real thing. Or, they think I’m just weird.”

“I don’t think you’re weird. I think that it’s great that you are who you are.” Anna thought about Hans, and how out and open and unafraid he was about being bi. It was something she always admired about him. “Do you mind if I ask you questions? If they’re too invasive you can just tell me to fuck off, it’s ok.”

“Don’t worry, I will,” Merida said dryly and they both laughed. “But, yeah, sure, go ahead.” 

“Ok, so, do you, like, just never get crushes on people?” Anna had been getting crushes on guys for a long as she could remember, so she wondered what it would be like if someone just never got them. 

“No, I do,” Merida nodded. “Some people who are asexual are also aromantic, meaning they don’t have either sexual _or_ romantic attraction to others, but other asexuals, like me, _do_ feel romantic attraction. I’m actually biromantic, if you want to know the specifics. So, sex with no one but crushes on everyone.”

“Huh.” Anna never knew any of that. “Do you date then?”

“Well,” Merida sighed. “There are only so many people out there who are asexual but not aromantic, and non-asexual people generally aren’t interested in dating someone who is never going to have sex with them.” She took a drink of her coffee and let out a low groan. “Part of me feels like it’ll be impossible to ever find someone I’m compatible with.”

They talked a bit more about Merida’s asexuality, and the friends she had made at the Q Center there on campus. Then the conversation wove onto other topics, classes and favorite foods and TV shows. Anna learned that, just like herself, Merida had also binged watched all of _Tidying Up with Marie Kondo_ yet instituted exactly zero of the advice into her own life. It was nice, after the day that Anna had had, to just sit and talk with someone about nothing and everything.

Later, after they had said their goodbyes and Anna was walking out of the student union, her mind was stuck on what Merida had said - about how finding the right person felt like an impossibility. Anna thought about herself, and how she had gotten herself in a situation where she had strong feelings for two different guys, neither of whom were looking for anything more. Of Kristoff, who had found love once before but lost it. Of Hans, who for some reason seemed to fight against the very notion of romantic attachment. Of Madison, who was clinging to a guy who lied with such ease. Of Chloe, who gave up a great guy in order to take sides in some drama. Of Ryder, who had found someone he thought was special only to have the rug pulled out from under him. Of her parents and Hans’s parents and Kristoff’s parents and the parents of a lot of other people she knew, all of whom couldn’t make it work. 

If it weren’t for Elsa and Maren, Anna might actually believe that love was an impossible thing. 

~

Just a block off campus was a convenience store frequented by students. You could get food at the bookstore, of course, but this convenience store had a much wider variety. Specifically, they had Ben & Jerry’s Chunky Monkey ice cream - Ryder’s favorite. So that’s where Anna went that night, to get some for him as well as some Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream for herself. 

When Ryder answered his door, Anna could see the weariness in his eyes. She held up the plastic shopping bag full of ice cream in one hand and a pair of spoons in the other.

“Wanna stay up late watching cheesy movies and eating way too much ice cream?” 

Ryder smiled. “It’s a school night.”

“Yeah, but we earned it after today, don’t you think?”

“Abso-fucking-lutely,” he said with a small laugh as he stepped back and opened the door wider for her to enter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to Johanna for helping me decide on Merida’s Starbucks order.


	42. Chapter 42

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kristoff gets a B-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Content warning: struggles with coming out]
> 
> If you haven’t noticed, I’ve made Room For You into a series. I’ve done this because I posted a Christmas one-shot set in this universe called [The Snow Day](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28266657). It’s set after the events of this main story, but the only real spoiler is that this thing has a happy ending.

(Anna): _so_  
(Anna): _things with madison went from bad to worse yesterday_

(Hans): _oh no_

(Anna): _madison confronted joe and he told her all these lies, said i was trying to get him to cheat on her with me and she totally believed all his bullshit_

(Kristoff): _holy shit_

(Anna): _and joe also told her that i was trying to get ryder to cheat on chloe too_  
(Anna): _and madison told chloe this and chloe believed it so now ryder and chloe are broken up_

(Hans): _wtf_

(Anna): _and ryder and i are basically on the outs with everyone_  
(Anna): _all because of joe_

(Hans): _that piece of shit_  
(Hans): _i wish i had punched in his face when i had the chance_

(Kristoff): _same_  
(Kristoff): _i’m so sorry anna, that’s awful_

(Anna): _thanks guys_  
(Anna): _i’m not as upset about it as i was yesterday but it’s still just UGH_  
(Anna): _but anyway_  
(Anna): _we need to go to the trading post this friday_  
(Anna): _so i can do karaoke and get all the bad vibes out_

(Kristoff): _deal_

(Hans): _kristoff has to do karaoke too_  
(Hans): _i’ve decided it_

(Anna): _yes!_

(Kristoff): _oop, heading into class, gotta turn my phone on silent_

(Anna): _KRISTOFF_

{ ~ }

At the end of class, as all of the other students were filtering out of the room, Kristoff stayed in his seat staring down at the test paper in front of him. 

_81_

That was a B. No, it was worse than a B. It was a _B-_. Looking back up to the front of the room, he saw that Professor Oaken had already left. Kristoff quickly gathered his things and headed off in the direction of his office. 

This was bad. Maybe not _bad_ bad but at the very least it was _not good_. How had this happened? Ok, well, maybe Kristoff knew exactly how this had happened. He basically got no school work or studying done on the weekends anymore. Friday nights had long ago become a wash. On Saturdays, Anna had begun staying at his apartment longer and longer into the day, sometimes not heading back to her dorm until well into the afternoon. Then he’d only have so much time before he’d need to head out and start his delivery shift at Fredo’s, which would keep him out until the wee hours of the morning. Which would result in him sleeping in late on Sundays. Then by midday on Sundays Hans would be at his place and, just like Anna, their time spent together grew longer and longer each weekend. 

Not that Kristoff was complaining about any of it. It was all great, amazing even. He sometimes still couldn’t believe that the two of them wanted to spend as much time as they did at his place. That he had found two different people that enjoyed spending hours at a time in his company - lounging, fucking, talking, eating, watching TV, or just doing nothing but doing it together. 

Kristoff had been trying to make up for all of that lost study time, putting in extra hours on weeknights, but apparently he had let some things slip a bit. 

“Professor?” Kristoff poked his head into the open office door once he reached it. “Do you have a minute?”

Oaken was sitting at his desk with some papers and he peered at Kristoff over the top of his reading glasses. “I don’t typically have office hours on Tuesdays.”

“I know but,” Kristoff held up his test paper. “Please?”

Oaken regarded him for a moment before nodding and waving him into the office. 

“Thank you,” Kristoff said sincerely as he sat down in one of the chairs in front of the professor’s desk and handed him his test paper. Oaken hummed as he looked it over, flipping through the pages. 

“Yes,” he said, handing it back to Kristoff. “As I recall, most students performed below normal on that test. It was a hard one.”

“Is there anything I can do to make up my grade in any way? Some extra credit or something?”

“It’s just one B.”

“It’s a B- actually.”

“ _Kristoff_.”

“I _know_ , it’s just,” Kristoff looked down at his lap and smoothed out the wrinkles that had formed on the test paper. “I don’t want my grades to slip even just a little, and I know this class is only going to get harder, and I need this class to graduate, and-,”

“Are you coming to the senior dinner?” Oaken asked suddenly, cutting him off. 

“The what?” Kristoff responded as he looked back up, a bit confused by the sudden change in topic and also not entirely sure what the professor was referring to. 

“The School of Engineering hosts a formal dinner reception for all the graduating seniors each year. You should have received an invitation via email.” 

Kristoff vaguely remembered seeing an email about something like that. He would usually never go to campus social events, but if Professor Oaken was asking him about this then it must be important. 

“Yes, right,” he said. “I’ll be there.” 

“Fantastic,” Oaken smiled and sat back in his chair a bit. “All the department chairs, myself included, will be there and the Dean of the school gives a speech. It’s always a lovely night, my wife looks forward to it each year.”

Oh. Ok, yeah, this was for sure something that Kristoff needed to be at. 

“And just so you’re aware,” Oaken continued on, “it’s not only a dinner. It’s also a networking event of sorts. The Dean likes to invite representatives from all the different private companies that we have research partnerships with. In fact, I have some friends from VLR Technologies who will be coming. Are you aware of them?”

“I-, yes, yes of course,” Kristoff said, trying not to sound too eager. VLR Technologies was located only a half hour away from campus. If Kristoff was able to get a job there after graduation then...

“They’re great people.” Oaken swiveled his chair to look up at his wall full of photographs. “There,” he said pointing to one of himself and some other people, all in suits. “That was from the dinner a few years ago. I’ll have to introduce you to them that night.”

“That would be amazing, thank you.” Kristoff felt an excitement building up, but also some nervousness. He’d need to wear something professional looking. Maybe Anna and Hans could help him pick something out. 

“If that’s a place you’re interested in for a job after graduation, let me know,” he said, swiveling back to look at Kristoff. “I can put you in touch with some folks. Write you a letter of recommendation, if you need.” 

Kristoff was stunned. “You-, you’d do that? Write me a letter of recommendation?” 

“You sound surprised,” Oaken said, furrowing his brows slightly.

Kristoff wasn’t sure what to say in response. It was something that he had been hoping for for a while, of course. A letter of recommendation from the head of the University’s electrical engineering department would go a long way with a prospective employer. He just hadn’t found the courage to ask Oaken about it yet. 

“Kristoff,’” the professor continued. “You are one of the brightest students I’ve had in a long time. And what you do for this office during your work-study hours? Well, I don’t know how we’ll get by without you once you’re gone. You’re smart, you’re driven, you’re a hard worker. Wherever you end up getting a job after graduation, they’ll be lucky to have you.”

A mixture of pride and embarrassment welled up in his chest from the compliments. “Thank you, professor, that’s-, thank you.”

Oaken gave him a warm smile. “Are we going to stop panicking about a B now?”

“Yeah,” Kristoff huffed out a small laugh and scratched at his hair. “Ok.” 

“Good,” the professor said as he picked back the papers he had been reviewed before Kristoff showed up. “Now go enjoy the rest of your day.” 

~

After leaving Professor Oaken’s office, Kristoff made his way over to the study lounge in the same building. Maren was sitting at her normal table and he headed straight for her, taking the seat opposite her like he always did. They gave each other hello smiles and Maren returned her attention to her school work. 

“Have you heard of this School of Engineering senior dinner thing?” Kristoff asked her after getting his own laptop and notebook out of his bag. 

“Yeah, of course,” Maren casually responded, not looking up. 

“And you’re going?” 

“Absolutely. Everyone goes to that. It’s this super fancy thing held at this really nice catering hall in town.” She paused her talking for a moment and tapped at her keyboard a few more times before finally looking up at him and smiling. “I remember a bunch of seniors last year talking about how amazing the food was and how fun of a night it was. I’ve been looking forward to it for a while now.” 

Good, he thought. The idea of big social events always spiked Kristoff’s anxiety, but knowing that Maren would be there helped. He’d at least have someone he knew and could stick close to all night. 

“Who are you bringing as your plus one?” she asked him. 

“Plus one?”

“All the graduating seniors get to bring a plus one.” Maren tilted her head slightly and gave him a curious look. “Didn’t you read the invitation?”

“No. I should probably do that.” Kristoff opened up his email and went searching for it. 

“I only ask who you’re bringing because if you needed a date I could always hook you up.” A knowing smile spread across Maren's face. “See, _my_ plus one has this sister. She’s a bit of a handful, but a ton of fun. And she’s super cute. I mean, as long as you’re into redheads that is.”

 _Oh, you have no idea,_ Kristoff thought, biting at the inside of his cheek and hoping he wasn’t blushing too much. 

“Unless, there was someone you already had in mind,” she added, a playfulness still in her voice. 

Kristoff thought about it. He supposed Anna would be the obvious choice for his plus one. Who else? Hans? No. The idea of showing up at an event with a guy as his date? Obviously that was not something that he was anywhere close to being ready for. 

But would Anna even want to go with him? Elsa and Maren would be there and presumably she would enjoy a fancy night out with them. But would Anna think it was _too much_? Would it be too much like a date for two people who were technically not _actually_ dating? And not just a date, but a double date with Anna’s sister and her long term girlfriend? Would that be too relationship-y? He remembered how unsure she had been about something as simple as keeping a toothbrush for herself at his place. What if he asked her and Anna interpreted it as Kristoff wanting things to get more serious between the two of them? And what if that freaked her out and then she wanted them to take a ‘break’ or something?

While he was busy mentally debating himself, Kristoff had failed to notice the fact that he had completely ignored Maren’s questions. 

“Sorry,” she said, her smile fading and a bit of worry creeping onto her face. “I was just joking around. I honestly wasn’t trying to pry or anything.”

“No, no,” he assured her, now feeling guilty for having left her hanging like that. “You’re good.”

“I know you and Anna aren’t, like, official or exclusive or whatever, so I shouldn’t assume.”

“It’s fine, really,” Kristoff held up his hands. “I just didn’t know until right now that there was a plus one thing so I hadn’t thought about it. But, yeah, I-I’d like to ask Anna. Hopefully she’ll want to go.”

The smile returned to Maren’s. “I’m _sure_ she will.”

That was a good sign, right? Maren knew Anna really well so if she was encouraging Kristoff to ask her then maybe that meant it was something Anna would be interested in. Maybe Anna already knew about this dinner and the plus one thing from Maren and Elsa talking about it and had been waiting for Kristoff to ask her. 

Fuck, this was like the stress of asking someone to prom all over again. 

“So,” Kristoff said, trying to put a mental pin in all that worry. “Oaken was telling me there are going to folks from different companies there too.” 

“Mmm-hmm,” she nodded. “There is going to be a representative from EF Systems at the dinner. I would love to get a job there after graduation.”

“They’re located in Westchester, right?”

“Yep. Which, honestly, would be perfect for us. Elsa wants a job in Manhattan and I still want to be close enough to home to visit often, so us ending up just north of the city is ideal.” 

Kristoff smiled at the way Maren framed it, how it was her and Elsa planning their lives and their future together. 

“What about you?” she asked him. “You know where you want to end up?”

“Around here, probably. A place like VLR Technologies because well,” he shrugged, “I’m already here so then I don’t have to move.” 

“Right, of course,” Maren responded. But she wanted to say something more, Kristoff could see it in her eyes. She wanted to say something like ‘someone else is already here too’. But she doesn’t say it, looking back down at her work instead, likely feeling as if she had already overstepped a bit earlier in the conversation. 

Maren wouldn’t be wrong though, at least not totally. But his reason for wanting a job near school after graduation wasn’t just that there was some _one_ else here, it’s that there were _two_ someone elses here. Two someone elses that weren’t graduating yet and that he still wanted to be near come next semester. 

Kristoff looked back at his laptop and finally found the email with the invitation to the senior dinner. He opened it up and began to read it over, his eyes eventually settling on the exact date of the dinner. 

_Oh._

~

Later that afternoon, Kristoff was making his way across the quad. He had texted Anna asking to meet up for a little while before her next class. It was something they did sometimes during the week, finding small bits of time to see each other between weekends. The quad was full of students walking in every direction and Kristoff scanned the crowd, looking for her. He saw her then, along the same path as him and heading in his direction. Anna smiled and waved as they made eye contact and Kristoff gave her a small wave back, coming to a stop in front of a bench. He hadn’t seen her since Sunday afternoon when she had shown up at his apartment and almost caught him and Hans. Everything had turned out fine, but a prickle of worry still spiked in the back of his mind as she approached him. 

“Hey, you,” she said, instantly wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him into a hug.

“Hey, yourself,” he responded, giving her a squeeze back. 

When Anna pulled back from the hug she smiled up at him for a moment before giving the front of his shirt a little tug. Kristoff knew what that meant and happily obliged, dipping his head down to give her a kiss. The two of them then sat down. Kristoff put his arm up on the back on the bench and Anna scooted in close to him, resting her head on his chest. She always fit so well under his arm. 

“How are you doing?” he asked as his fingers brushed along her upper arm. “Ya know, with everything?”

Anna let out a frustrated sigh. “Ok, I guess. Better than yesterday. I’m trying to take a ‘accept the thing you cannot change’ approach to it all. I can’t control what Madison and Chloe want to believe.” She picked at the frayed holes in her distressed jeans. “Just like I can’t control the way my parents are.”

Kristoff was glad to hear that she was seeing it that way. Over the past couple of weeks Anna had talked more with him about how her parents were while she was growing up. The coldness, the distance, the caring of nothing besides appearances. His heart always ached for her whenever she talked about it, but he was also proud of how she was finding peace with it all. It kind of amazed Kristoff sometimes too. How could someone grow up in an environment like that and still turn out as warm and caring as Anna was? 

He never mentioned it to Anna, but her parents reminded Kristoff of a saying he had heard his Grandma Bulda use a couple of times - _‘Folks like that know the price of everything but the value of nothing.’_ It made him even more appreciative that he had had her in his life growing up. And it made him miss her even more too. Grandma Bulda would have liked Anna. And Hans. 

“So, how has your week been going?” Anna asked as she patted his thigh. “Better than mine I hope.”

“Eh. I got a B- on a test,” he grumbled. Despite Professor Oaken’s assuring words, Kristoff was still feeling a bit disappointed in himself. 

“Is that… bad?” Anna asked cautiously. 

“Kinda bad, yeah,” he answered, but then he heard Anna chuckle slightly. “Ok, it's not the end of the world. I guess.”

“ _Definitely_ not the end of the world. C’s get degrees, you know.”

Kristoff rolled his eyes but couldn’t help but smile. “That sounds like something Hans would say.”

“ _Duh_ , who do you think I learned it from?” she asked and they both laughed. “Did you use one of the pencils I got you to take the test?”

“No, I haven't used any from that box yet.”

“Well, see, that’s your problem.” Anna turned her head to look at him. “If you used one of them then you would have gotten an A+, guaranteed.” 

“Guaranteed, huh?” he asked, arching an eyebrow at her. 

“Yep,” she said, confidently smiling up at him. “They’re birthday pencils which makes them good luck.”

Kristoff _tsked_ as he lightly smacked at his knee with his palm, feigning disappointment. “You couldn’t have told me this before?”

“It’s common knowledge, Kristoff,” she said as she leaned her head back against his chest. “Don’t go blaming me.”

“Ok,” he gave Anna a kiss on the top of her head. “I’ll make sure to only use your pencils on tests from now on.”

“Good.”

The two of them were quiet for a while then, looking out at the rest of the quad. It was a beautiful day. Spring really had sprung. The trees were slowly getting their green back and flowers were blooming in the garden beds around campus. Groups of students were sitting out on the grass 

“There was something else I wanted to tell you. Or, ask you, I guess,” Kristoff said eventually. Anna pulled back to look up at him again and he continued on. “So, um, the School of Engineering holds this senior dinner each spring. It’s a fancy thing and people get all dressed up and everyone that’s graduating gets to bring a plus one so Maren and Elsa will both be there and, uh,” Kristoff hesitated but Anna’s eyebrows went up and a hopeful smile spread across her face, giving him the confidence to continue on. “And, um, did you want to come? With me, that is.”

“Yeah, totally,” she responded, her hand squeezing lightly at his thigh. 

“You do?” 

“Of course!” she exclaimed, her voice bubbling her with excitement. “Oh my god, this is going to be so much fun. Ooh! I have to pick out a dress!”

Kristoff felt relieved that all his worrying of such an ask rocking the boat was for nothing. It also felt really good to see how happy she was. 

“There is one little hiccup though,” he said, trying not to sound too ominous and ruin the mood. “It’s on a Friday night. Two weeks from this Friday, actually.”

“Ok,” Anna said quickly but then he saw it click in her mind. “ _Oh._ ”

“Yeah,” Kristoff responded and they were both quiet for a moment, both thinking about the third member of their normal Friday night trio. 

“Well,” Anna said eventually. “I don’t think Hans will mind if we miss one Friday night out together.” Her face scrunched up as if she wasn’t sure if she believed her own words. “Do you?”

“No, no I think he’ll be ok with it. It’s just the one night.”

“Yeah. Right.” she nodded a couple of times. “It’s just one night.”

“I mean, it’s not like he’ll have any trouble finding some _company_ for himself,” Kristoff said with a bit of a suggestive smile, trying to act as if Hans being with someone else didn’t affect him at all despite the jealousy that would always crawl up his spine whenever he thought about it. Instead he acted like a guy that would be happy for his buddy - _‘yeah bro, get laid, high five’_ \- because that’s what Anna would expect. And because he had no right to feel any differently. 

“Oh yeah, for sure,” Anna responded, rolling her eyes and letting out a small laugh. “You know how Hans is.” She looked down briefly and then back up at him. “How should we tell him?”

“I’ll talk to him.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, I got it,” Kristoff assured her. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Thank you,” Anna said, resting her head back against his chest again. “And thank you again for inviting me. I’m really excited. This is going to be such a fun night.” 

“I’m glad you’re excited,” Kristoff gave her another kiss on the top of her head and Anna hummed approvingly. 

They’re still again for a while, quietly enjoying each other’s company as they watch other students passing by. It always felt so good to just be near her. 

Kristoff thought about Sunday afternoon again, and how close Anna had come to finding out his secret. He kept trying to picture what it would be like, to actually sit her down and look her in the eyes and say those words to her. _‘Anna, I’m bi.’_ He wished he could see into her mind and just know how she would react without having to actually tell her. 

He knew that he was still not ready yet, to come out to her, but he could feel that he _wanted_ to be ready. That he _wanted_ to get to a place where he could trust her with it and he could share this truth about himself with her. And maybe, for now at least, that was enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we’re past the 175K word mark! Woo! Thank you again to everyone that has shown this story love and encouraged me along 💕


	43. Chapter 43

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryder’s black eye.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Content warning: homophobia/biphobia, use of a slur, references to bullying, references to violence]

“Shit,” Hans mumbled to himself when he caught a glimpse of the clock as he walked into the locker room. Their morning practice had run late. It was Wednesday and Hans had a class that he absolutely could not be late for. _Again._

He needed to go all the way to Isle Hall, shower, change, grab his books, and then go all the way back to the other side of campus to the lecture hall. If he hustled then hopefully he’d get to class on time. Stuffing everything down into his bag Hans rushed back out the door while most of the other guys were still taking off their gear. 

~

As Hans walked out of class he took his phone out of his pocket to turn it off silent, a thing that was nearly second nature to him. He paused though when he saw all of the alerts on the screen. There were two missed calls from Anna as well as a bunch of texts telling him to call her. Strange. He couldn’t remember Anna ever actually _calling_ him before. And the only times she ever texted him directly, instead of in their group text with Kristoff, was on Saturday nights. So either Anna was really desperate for a bit of afternoon delight or something was very wrong. 

Hans tapped her contact information and called her. 

“Where are you right now?” Anna demanded as soon as she answered the phone, not even offering him a hello.

“Um, I just got out of class,” he answered, a bit thrown off. “I’m in the courtyard outside the lecture hall, near the fountain. What’s wro-,”

“I’m nearby. Stay right there,” she ordered before hanging up.

Hans stared down at his phone for a moment before putting it back in his pocket. It was only a few minutes later that Hans spotted Anna striding in his direction with a purpose in her step. Her jaw was clenched and there was a fire in her eyes. Hans felt his stomach drop. _She knows_ , was the first thought that popped into his mind. About him and Kristoff, that she found out somehow and was now coming to kick Hans’s ass for fucking her man. 

_Shit, shit, shit, fuck._

What was he supposed to say if she asked him directly? Part of him wanted to turn and bolt. Hans was faster than her, he was sure of it. Plus Anna was wearing those chunky, wedge sneakers if hers right now so she would never be able to catch him. But, no, that was a crazy idea. Besides, running away would just make him look more guilty. 

Hans took a deep breath and steeled himself as Anna came to stop directly in front of him. 

“What happened at practice this morning?” she asked with a stomp of her foot. 

“What-, wait, _what?_ ” he responded, completely baffled by the unexpected question. 

“Lacrosse practice,” Anna said impatiently, her brows knitting together. “What happened at this morning’s lacrosse practice?” 

Hans’s mind raced, trying to remember anything out of the ordinary but he came up blank. “It was… practice. Just, normal lacrosse practice.”

That was apparently the wrong answer as Anna exhaled deeply through her nose and crossed her arms. “Then why does Ryder have a black eye?”

“A black-, Ryder has a black eye?”

“Yes!”

“How did he get that?”

“That’s what I’m asking you!” she nearly shouted at him. 

“Ok, ok,” he said, raising his hands up. Relief that her anger had nothing to do with Kristoff mixed with worry about what had actually happened to Ryder. “I don’t know anything about a black eye, I _swear_. Just, start from the beginning, tell me everything.”

“I was heading to class and I saw him coming back to the dorm from practice and I…” she winced. “I saw his black eye. I asked him what happened and he said he got into a fight with someone in the locker room and that he got a one game suspension from the coach but he won’t tell me any other details.”

“Ok,” Hans nodded. “I didn’t see any fight, I promise you. I was one of the first guys out of the locker room after practice this morning, so it must have happened after I left.” 

“Do you have any idea who he would have gotten into a fight with him?” Anna asked, dropping her arms from how they had been crossed. Her expression softened, turning more to worry than anger. “Are there guys on the team that pick on him? Because if there _are_ guys on the team being mean to him or bullying him I would expect you to stand up for him. You know he’s like a brother to me, right?”

“I know,” Hans said, placing his hands on her upper arms to try to reassure her. “I know.”

“Because it had to be someone starting something with him. Ryder would never just start a fight, that’s not like him.”

“I haven’t seen or heard anyone picking on him.” Truth was the only person on the team that Hans had ever seen be an asshole to Ryder was Hans himself. Guilt crept in as he thought about it. He had been meaning to find a way to reach out to Ryder and try to actually be friendlier with him. It’s just, it was... complicated. 

“Is he ok though?” Hans asked her. “Is his eye bad?”

“It’s not _so_ bad,” she said as she looked down and twisted her hands together. “It’s not, like, swollen shut or anything.”

“That’s good.” He ran a hand up and down her arm. “I’ll ask around, try to figure out what happened. And I’ll make sure whoever it was he got into the fight with doesn’t bother him again, ok?”

“Thank you,” Anna said with sincere appreciation. She gave him a sheepish smile before stepping forward and hugging him. “I’m sorry for getting mad at you.”

“It’s ok.” Hans petted the back of her head. “Your friend got hurt so you went into fierce protective mode. I wouldn’t have expected anything less out of you.” He felt her shoulders shake from a soft chuckle. “Plus I know you’ve been having a bad week.”

“Ryder has been, too,” she said as she pulled back enough to look up at him. “And I hate that this happened to him right when he’s trying to get over a broken heart.”

Seeing the guilt on Anna’s face only sealed Hans’s resolve. “I’ll figure it out,” He said to her. “I’ll make it right, I promise.”

~

When Hans got back to Isle Hall, he found that all four of his suitemates - Torres, Lee, Furlong, and Greco - were hanging out on the couches in the common room and watching ESPN. They all gave him a half-hearted hello as he walked into the suite, their eyes glued to the TV.

“Hey, guys,” Hans began as he came and stood behind one of the couches. “What happened in the locker room this morning after I left?” 

His question did not get the reaction he was expecting. Everyone got still and quiet, a heavy awkwardness settling over the room. Torres had been eating from a bag of chips and he sat frozen with one chip halfway to his mouth. Lee and Furlong gave each other nervous glances before focusing back in on the TV. 

“Nothing,” Greco said eventually, not looking in Hans’s direction. 

“Then why does Nattura have a black eye?” Hans pressed, knowing that _something_ had happened. 

More quiet, more awkwardness, more of none of them making eye contact with him. 

“Helloooo,” Hans said, holding his arms out to the side and feeling a bit annoyed that they were being so evasive with him. “Anybody?”

Torres, who had the guiltiest look on his face, finally spoke up. “He got in a fight with O’Malley,” he told Hans, but then quickly got an elbow in the ribs and glare from Greco. “What?” Torres hissed back at him. 

“Ok, and what was the fight about?” 

“Look, Westergaard,” Lee said and he turned around to face Hans. “It wasn’t a big thing. They fought, they settled it, and now it’s over.” 

“Yeah,” Greco chimed in. “Coach gave them each a one game suspension for fighting in the locker room and now it’s done. Don’t worry about it.” There was a firmness and finality in his tone. 

What the fuck? They were all acting like they were doing him some kind of favor by not telling him what really happened. 

“Whatever,” Hans said with a shake of his head as he turned away from them and retreated into his own room, closing the door behind him. After dropping his bag and sitting down on his bed, Hans pulled out his phone to text Anna. 

_couldn’t get any info out of my suitemates, but we have another practice tomorrow morning so i’ll see what i can find out then_

Anna was quick to respond. 

_thank you hans, i really appreciate it_

At the end of her message was a single heart emoji. Hans held his phone in both of his hands as he stared down at it for a long while. 

_Anna just really likes emojis_ , he told himself before locking the screen and tossing his phone to the side. 

~

The next morning, Hans was getting suited up for practice in the locker room when he saw Ryder walk in. He didn’t look over in Hans’s direction as he made his way over to his own locker, but Hans could see the back eye. Like Anna had said, it wasn’t that bad. Mostly just some bruising under the eye and it didn’t appear to be swollen at all. 

Should he just go right up to Ryder and ask him what happened? That would be the most straightforward approach, he supposed. But if Ryder hadn’t even wanted to talk to Anna about it, why would he ever want to talk to _him_ about it?

O’Malley walked in then and Hans saw that he had a fat lip. Ryder must have gotten at least one good swing in at some point during the fight. _Good_ , Hans thought with some satisfaction. Whatever the fight had been about, O’Malley deserved a good punch in the face. When O’Malley spotted Hans he gave him a dirty glare before turning his back and opening his locker. Hans just rolled his eyes and continued to get ready. 

“Westergaard,” a voice called out. Hans looked over to see Coach Mattias standing in the doorway of his office. “Can I speak to you for a moment?” 

“Yes, sir,” he responded, quickly hurrying over. 

“Close the door and take a seat please,” the coach said as Hans entered his office. Hans did as he was told, wondering what this was about. Mattias sat down at his desk and fixed Hans with a serious expression. “At the end of last practice there was a fight in the locker room between O’Malley and Nattura. Do you know what the fight was about?”

“No, sir. I wasn’t here when it happened, I had already left,” Hans told him. “D-do _you_ know what the fight was about?” he ventured cautiously, wondering if he could get some answers for Anna out of this conversation. 

“Not entirely,” Mattias said with a shake of his head. “I only saw the end of the fight and neither O’Malley nor Nattura wanted to talk about it. I’ve been able to get bits and pieces of information out of a few guys, but not enough for me to take any action beyond the single game suspension for each of them that I’ve already implemented. Everyone apparently finds it too…” he paused, seemingly trying to find the right word. “Awkward to talk about.”

Awkward? That’s how Hans’s suitemates had acted yesterday when he asked him about the whole thing. What the heck was this fight about? 

“Well, I’m sorry I can’t be of more help, sir,” Hans told him. He was expecting the coach to dismiss him then, but he didn’t. Instead, Mattias stared at him for a long moment, his forehead creased and his eyes focused. Hans shifted uncomfortably in his seat under the scrutiny. 

“Westergaard,” Coach says after a while, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his desk. “Do you remember that when you joined this team you signed an anti-harassment agreement?”

“Harassment?” 

“Everyone has to sign it. All student-athletes, those in Greek life, those joining any campus organization, etc, etc. It’s a requirement by the University to ensure-,”

“I didn’t harass anyone,” Hans cut in, feeling his defenses going up. No, there was no fucking way he was going to get in trouble for something he had nothing to do with. 

“I know, I-,”

“I didn’t _do_ anything. I wasn’t even in the locker room when the fight happened!” 

“I know,” Mattias said more firmly. “ _Please_ , just listen to what I’m saying.”

Hans took a breath and nodded. 

“The agreement,” the coach continued on, “states that the person signing it will not engage in any harassment, either verbal or physical, of anyone one else based upon race, religion, creed, ethnicity, national origin, disability, gender, gender identity, or,” Mattias paused, “Or sexual orientation.” 

The words hung heavy in the air and Hans felt a cold chill down his spine. 

“Violation of this agreement,” Mattias explained, “could result in removal from the team or student organization that the individual is a member of. And, in certain circumstances, could even result in expulsion from the University.”

Hans tried to remain as still as possible, and tried to keep his expression as neutral as possible, while his heart pounded in his chest. 

“If there is a player on this team violating that agreement then, as the coach, that is something I would want to know about.”

_‘You need to man up, Westergaard,’ the high school lacrosse coach said, giving him an annoyed look. ‘If you want to be tough enough to stay on this team then you need to be tough enough to handle a few jokes.’_

“Do you know of anyone on this team that has been violating this agreement?” 

“Nope,” Hans said quickly. “I haven’t seen or heard anything like that.” 

Mattias blinked, seeming surprised by the answer. “Are you _sure?_ ” he asked slowly. 

“Yes, sir,” Hans answered crisply. 

“Hans,” Mattias said, actually using his first name. There was concern and sympathy etched onto his face as he spoke. “You know that my door is always open, right? That if you ever need someone to talk to, that I’m always here. It’s important that you know that.”

Hans gave him a couple of quick nods, not trusting himself to speak. 

“Ok,” Mattias said, sitting back in his chair and looking not entirely convinced. “You’re dismissed.”

He stood and quickly left. When Hans stepped back into the locker room he saw that most of the guys had been staring at the office door. They all quickly looked away as soon as he appeared though. All except for Ryder, whose eyes lingered on Hans for a moment longer, a bit of embarrassment in his expression, before eventually turning away as well. 

~

Coach Mattias’s words ran through Hans’s mind all throughout practice. O’Malley would give him the stink eye whenever they were near each other, but didn’t say a word to Hans. Ryder on the other hand seemed to be avoiding him completely, not even making eye contact. 

When practice was over, Hans walked slowly back to the athletic center and by the time he got into the locker room most of the guys had gotten their gear off. Unlike yesterday, he didn’t have any morning classes he needed to rush off to. He stood at his locker for a moment psyching himself up for what he needed to do. Turning, he walked across the locker room to where Ryder was sitting on a bench undoing the laces of his cleats. 

“Hey,” Hans said as he came to a stop in front of him. 

Ryder looked up and then raised his eyebrows when he saw it was Hans. “Hey,” he responded. 

“I was hoping to get some more shots-on-goal practice today, but I need a goalie. I know Jackson has class now,” Hans said, referencing the senior and starting goalie on the team. “So I was wondering if you’d be up for it.” Hans fiddled with the head of his lacrosse stick. “If you’re not busy, this is. I don’t know if you have class now or whatever.”

“I’m free,” Ryder said. “Let me just get my gear back on.”

“Great. Thank you. I’ll go grab a bucket of balls and we can head back out.”

Ryder nodded and then began to lace his cleats back up. 

~

When they got back out on the lacrosse field, Hans dumped the bucket of balls at midfield while Ryder got himself set up in goal. One at a time, Hans would scoop a ball up in his stick and run towards the goal to make a shot. Some of his shots made it into the net but Ryder was able to stop a number of them. Hans had never played goalie before, but he’d spent his whole lacrosse career trying to trick the goalies of opposing teams. He gave Ryder a few pointers, tips on how to know when someone was faking high but going to be shooting low. Ryder listened intently and picked up on what he said quickly, making adjustments and stopping Hans’s shot the next time he tried a fake. Hans had never really gotten the chance to see Ryder play much, considering the fact that he was riding the bench all season as the backup goalie, but he was really good. 

“Water break?” Hans asked after they had run a number of plays and Ryder and agreed. The two of them grabbed their water bottles and took off their helmets before sitting down next to each other on the grass in the middle of the field. Hans looked around as the two drank in silence. It was a warm spring day and there were some students jogging around the track that circled the practice field they were on. In the distance he could see other students coming and going from the athletic center. 

“So,” Hans began, looking over at Ryder. “You going to tell me about this fight between you and O’Malley?”

“What’s there to tell?” Ryder responded nonchalantly as he squirted some more water into his mouth. 

“How about why it happened?”

“Does someone need a good reason to fight that asshole?” 

The corner of Hans’s mouth twitched up into a smirk because, well, he was right. But Hans needed answers here, not just for Anna but now for himself too. 

“Coach called me into his office before practice. He seemed to imply that the fight had something to do with me.”

Ryder did say anything, instead he just looked down at the ground and began pulling blades of grass out one by one. 

“Did it?” Hans pressed. Ryder raised his eyes and he could see the apprehension on his face. “It’s ok, you can tell me.”

Ryder nodded and then began to talk. “O’Malley was saying some shit about you after you left the locker room yesterday. Stuff about you taking his spot in the starting lineup even though he’s a senior and you’re only a sophomore. He’s been pissed about it all season.” 

“And that was enough to make you take a swing at him?” Hans asked, but got only a shrug in response. “Ryder, come on, I know that being a sophomore isn’t the thing about me that O’Malley actually takes issue with. Whatever it is he said, I promise you I’ve heard worse.”

“Ok,” Ryder said, still looking a bit uncomfortable. “I guess you have a right to know. His exact words were,” he paused for a moment and thought. “He said it was a bunch of PC bullshit that he had to play backup to a guy that was half a-,” he winced and his voice got quiet, “half a… f-word.” 

“Which f-word? Fruit? Fairy?”

“No,” Ryder frowned. “The really bad one.”

_Ah._

“Only half, huh?” Hans asked with a smirk. “That’s not so bad.” Ryder arched an eyebrow at him. “I told you I’ve heard worse.” And Hans had, that particular word as well as others. 

“It’s still bullshit though,” Ryder said, shaking his head. “And I told O’Malley that, I told him to not ever say that word. Then he told me that I’m just a rookie and that I should shut up and mind my business. So then I told him he’s the one that should shut up and that when he talks like that in front of me then he _makes_ it my business. Then we yelled back and forth at each other about shutting up and then he took a swing at me. He missed, of course, because he’s slow as shit.” Hans laughed and Ryder continued on. “Then I took a swing back and gave him that fat lip. Then we tussled for a bit. This,” he said as he pointed at his eye, “wasn’t even from a punch. Just got slammed into a locker. Then a bunch of the guys pulled us apart and Coach came in yelling. And that was it.” 

“Why though?” Hans asked. “Why stand up for me? I haven’t exactly been nice to you in the past.”

“No, you haven’t,” Ryder responded matter-of-factly. “But, Anna cares about you. And you’re my teammate. Both of those things mean something to me. But even without all that,” he waved a hand, “No one deserves to be talked about like that and no one should be using that word. Standing up to O’Malley in that moment, it just, I don’t know, it felt like the right thing to do.”

Ryder wasn't giving himself enough credit. Hans knew that simply _knowing_ what the right thing to do was and actually _doing_ it were two different things. He was reminded of moments in the hallways back in high school, the look of hurt on Kyle’s face, and all the mistakes he tried not to think about anymore. 

“And he said it was PC bullshit?” Hans asked, his focus going back to what Ryder said O’Malley’s words were. “As in, political correctness? He thinks the starting spot was given to me _because_ I’m bi? Like it makes shit easier for me?”

“No one else on the team thinks like that,” Ryder tried to reassure him. “Everyone knows how good you are, that you earned your starting spot. And, and no one else feels like he does when it comes to, ya know, you being into dudes. It’s not like the old days, guys are cool about that stuff now.” 

Hans shook his head. “You can’t tell me it’s nobody else. Anderson and Sullivan, they’ve said shit to me about it right alongside O’Malley. And there has to be others too, who think it but don’t say anything.” 

“Ok, _most_ of the guys, the vast majority of the guys, don’t care. Trust me.”

Hans was sure what to believe. Even if Ryder was telling him the truth right now, that most of the guys had no issues with his sexuality, it didn’t change the facts of what had happened. O’Malley had called him a fag in front of the whole team and Ryder was the only one to step up and say anything back. A whole locker room full of guys heard that shit and only one of them defended him. Hans’s own suitemates had been there, had heard what O’Malley said, and did nothing. How many other times had they stood by and said nothing while Hans was referred to with a slur? He knew he wasn’t super close friends with those guys but, _fuck_ , they had been rookies together last year and they lived together this year. They’d hang out and go drinking together sometimes. He fucking helped Torres pass his damn Macro midterm! Did they secretly think the same way O’Malley did? Is that why they didn’t want to tell him what the fight had been about? Hans felt his skin crawl at the idea of them snickering and mocking him behind his back. 

“Why didn’t you tell Anna what happened?” he asked Ryder, trying to get his mind on something else. 

“If Anna knew there was someone on the team saying shit like that about you, she’d go storming into the locker room looking to beat him up herself.”

Hans smiled at the mental image of Anna taking on O’Malley. But then he felt a pang of guilt, that for the second time he had been the reason for a secret between Anna and Ryder - two people who were so close that they referred to each other as family. 

“Besides,” Ryder continued. “she’s got enough to worry about right now.”

“Yeah, Anna told me about everything that happened,” Hans said. “That Joe guy is a piece of shit, huh?”

Ryder’s jaw clenched as he shook his head. “ _Fuck_ that guy.” 

“I should have punched his lights out when I had the chance,” Hans remarked, remembering how satisfying it had been to slam Joe into that wall. 

“I’ve been feeling the same way. Maybe that’s why my blood was so hot yesterday when I got into it with O’Malley, I don’t know.” Ryder sighed and flopped backwards, laying flat on his back against the grass. “I don’t know why I’m so bad at love. I’ve never been able to make anything last more than a couple of weeks. I thought-, I had thought Chloe was someone special. Now I think back to us being, ya know, _together_ and I just-,” he let out a long sigh. “Do you ever get sick of it? The whole college hookup culture thing? Do you ever get sick of meaningless sex?”

“I actually prefer meaningless sex,” Hans said as he laid down as well. “Makes things simpler.” 

Ryder snorted and then shook his head. “I just want to be in love. I know that probably sounds super lame or whatever. I don’t know. Is this,” Ryder gestured in wide circles with his hands, “this _stuff_ , is it easier with guys than it is with girls?”

“No. Men are idiots.”

That made Ryder laugh and then the two of them looked up at the sky, watching as random clouds passed by. 

“Thank you,” Hans said after a few minutes. “I realize I hadn’t said that yet, so, thank you for standing up for me.”

“Of course,” Ryder said simply. 

“And I’m sorry that you ended up getting suspended from the game on Saturday because of me.” 

“Eh,” he shrugged. “I never play anyway, right?”

“Yeah, but you will,” Hans said with surety as he turned his head to look at him. “Jackson graduates this year and you’ll be the starting goalie next year. You’re really good. I think we’re going to be a top team next year.” Their team had won more games than they had lost so far that season, but they still weren’t a sure shot for the playoffs. 

“Thank you,” Ryder said, giving him an appreciative smile. 

Hans wanted to say more. He wanted to apologize for how much of an asshole he had been to Ryder all semester, but he wasn’t sure how to do it. How would he even begin to explain it to Ryder? All the fears that still gnawed at the back of his mind no matter how hard he tried to push the thoughts away. All of the hang-ups that still held him back from any kind of true friendships with straight guys. All of the reasons he had always kept the other guys on the team, including his suitemates, at arm's length. All of the things that happened in high school, all of his teammates from back then and how they all changed towards him once they knew. 

Hans had even resisted a friendship with Kristoff at first, back when he thought Kristoff was straight. That day they were at the outlet mall and Hans had hurled cutting words at him in an attempt to push him away. Kristoff had seen right through him though, even back then knowing exactly what Hans actually needed. 

But even if Hans was able to find a way to explain it all, he couldn’t actually say it to Ryder. Because then Ryder’s first question would be just that: _‘What about Kristoff? He’s straight and you’re friends with him.’_ And Hans wouldn’t have an answer for that. 

So, he doesn’t try to explain, he doesn’t try to make any excuses for his behavior. 

“I’m sorry,” he said to Ryder. “For every time I was… less than kind to you. I’ve been a real prick and you didn’t deserve that. So, sorry for all of it.”

“Yeah, don’t worry about it, man,” Ryder said, without a hint of hesitation. “All’s forgiven.”

“You want to go grab some lunch?” 

“Sure. Sandwich shop in the student union?” 

“Ehhh,” Hans said as they both sat up. “That place is not my favorite.”

“I get a black eye for you and you’re not going to let me pick where we get lunch?” Ryder asked with a grin. 

Hans rolled his eyes but couldn't help but smile back. “ _Fine._ I guess I owe you.” 

~

Anna and Kristoff were already in their seats when Hans walked into class later that afternoon. When Anna spotted him, her eyes lit up.

“Did you find out what the fight was about?” she asked him eagerly as he sat down next to her. 

“It was about me, actually,” Hans said and Anna’s eyes went wide. “Another guy was talking shit and Ryder stood up for me.”

“Wait, really?” Kristoff asked, his brow furrowing as he straightened up in his seat.

“It’s not a big deal,” Hans said with a dismissive wave. “The guy just has a chip on his shoulder because I took his spot in the starting lineup this year. It’s no big deal.” Anna and Kristoff didn’t need to know the whole story, it would only just worry them. “I’m going to make sure the guy doesn’t bother Ryder again though, don’t worry.” 

“Well, thank you,” Anna said, giving him a smile. “I really appreciate it.”

“Yeah, no problem. Oh, and I invited Ryder to come with us to The Trading Post tomorrow night, if that’s ok. Figured he could use the pick-me-up.”

“That’s awesome!” Anna said, clasping her hands together. “I had actually already invited Merida to come along too. So it’ll be a whole big group of us.” 

The professor began to speak then and Anna turned to look towards the front of the classroom.   
Kristoff held his gaze though, and the two of them looked at each other over Anna’s head as the class started up. There was something unreadable in Kristoff’s expression, almost as if he was worried about something. Maybe it was the talk of fights and there being a guy on the team that was holding a grudge against Hans. Or maybe Kristoff was still in his own head about what had happened last Sunday with Anna showing up at his apartment. 

He gave Hans a half-smile though, and Hans returned the expression before they both turned their attentions to the front of the room.


	44. Chapter 44

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A fun night of karaoke and crippling self doubt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok! Lots of things to get to before we get into the chapter. 
> 
> First, I want to say sorry for how long it has taken me to update. There were a couple of irl things that monopolized my time and then I ran into a patch of writer’s block. I feel like I’m back into a pretty good groove now so hopefully I should be able to get back to my normal posting frequency. Also, this chapter is nice and long so hopefully that makes up for the long wait. 
> 
> And for those of you who were reading my other story, [A Frozen Christmas Carol](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27898675/chapters/68316274), I want to assure you I haven’t given up on it. I know we’re way past Christmas at this point haha, but I’m still working on it. I have most of the next chapter written so I’m hoping to be able to update that again soon. 
> 
> Also, and BIG BIG thank you to Liv for making me some playlists to help me break out of my writer’s block. They were a huge help. And just FYI, if you haven’t seen them on my tumblr, Liv has written some fic of fic drabbles set in the RFY universe which I LOVE LOVE LOVE. They can be found [here](https://ahtohallan-calling.tumblr.com/post/638715062107914240/8-i-just-wanted-an-easy-day-with-my) and [here](https://ahtohallan-calling.tumblr.com/post/638893746029756416/for-rfy-35-whyre-you-dressed-like-that). 
> 
> Finally, I wanted to clarify some things with regards to the timeline of the story. Chapters 36-43 all take place over the course of the same week. So, from the incident with Joe grabbing Anna’s arm at the party Friday night in chapter 36 to Hans and Ryder becoming friends after Thursday morning practice in chapter 43, that’s all been one (very busy) week. And so this chapter here takes place on a Friday night, the very next day from where we left off in the previous chapter and exactly one week after the incident with Joe. Basically, there are no big jumps in time in this story and you’re seeing what happens every single weekend. Hopefully that clears it up for everyone! 
> 
> Now, onto the chapter!

“I’m so excited about tonight,” Anna said as the three of them walked the two blocks from Kristoff’s apartment to The Trading Post. “You guys plus Ryder plus Merida. It’s like all my worlds colliding. It’s going to be so much fun!”

“I’m excited, too,” Hans turned around and started walking backwards so he could face Kristoff. “Can’t wait to see this one finally get up on the karaoke stage.” 

“Never gunna happen,” Kristoff said as he shook his head, but he had that lopsided grin on his face. 

Anna giggled and Hans rolled his eyes before turning to walk forward again. Hans _was_ excited, actually. As much as he always liked the fact that Friday nights were a time for just the three of them to hang out, he was looking forward to spending some more time with Ryder. It was a bit of a freeing feeling, finally letting go of some of his old hang ups and anxieties and allowing himself to become friends with Ryder. Not that Hans was ready to let down his guard any further and trust any of the other guys on the lacrosse team just yet. 

By the time they got to The Trading Post, and made it past the bouncer half-heartedly checking IDs at the door, they found that Merida was already there and had secured a table for all of them. Which was clutch because, while it was still early in the night, the place was already packed. 

Anna gave Merida a big hug as they reached the table and Kristoff and Hans gave her polite hellos. 

“I’ll get the first round,” Anna declared. “Kristoff, you come help me carry the drinks. Hans, Merida, what do you want?”

“Vodka soda,” Hans said as he sat down at the table. 

“Whiskey, straight up,” Merida added. 

Anna and Kristoff headed back to the front room where the bar was and Hans and Merida exchanged silent smiles from where they sat across the table from each other. He felt the slight awkwardness of being alone with someone he had only briefly met twice before but never really ever talked to. Hans searched his mind trying to think of some topic of conversation when he noticed her phone, which was lying face down on the table. It’s case had four solid colored stripes across it - black, gray, white, and purple. 

“Is that the ace flag?” he asked, pointing at it and hoping he was right.

Merida looked down at her phone and then back up at him. “It is,” she said, sounding surprised. “People almost never recognize it. Are you…,” she trailed off as she tapped her phone case with her knuckle.

“Oh, no, no, no,” Hans shook his head. “I’m, like, the opposite.”

“Opposite?” she asked, giving him a quizzical look. 

“I’m bi. So, you don’t want to have sex with anyone meanwhile I want to have sex with everyone. Opposites.”

Merida’s eyes narrowed and her forehead creased as she silently studied him. Hans had thought it was a funny joke but now he was worried that he had just made a bad impression with Anna’s newest friend. 

“Don’t most bisexuals view the ‘want to have sex with everyone’ thing as a harmful stereotype?” she challenged him. 

“Yes,” he nodded. “But for me it’s actually true.”

Merida crossed her arms and tilted her head to the side. Ok, maybe doubling down on the joke was a bad idea. 

“See,” she began, “I think you being bi and me being ace actually makes us the same, not opposites. We’re both the same as Bigfoot, too.”

Hans blinked. “...You’re going to have to explain that last part.” 

“We’re the same because,” Merida dramatically looked over both of her shoulders before leaning in close to him and lowering her voice, as if she were telling him a secret. “According to most people, we don’t actually exist.”

Hans let out a small laugh because, yeah, she probably also got a lot of the same _‘you’re just confused’_ bullshit that he got. He was still a bit confused though. 

“But Bigfoot _doesn’t_ actually exist,” he pointed out. 

“That’s what they _want_ you to think,” she responded, her eyes going wide. Hans stared back at her silently, wondering if this girl was actually completely off her rocker. Then he noticed that she was trying incredibly hard not to crack a smile. 

“You’re fucking with me, aren’t you?”

“Yes, yes I am,” she admitted as she broke into a fit of laughter and sat back in her chair. “Oh my god, I really had you going there. You should have seen your face!”

“Christ,” Hans breathed out before laughing too. “Now I really need a drink. What’s taking Anna and Kristoff so long?” When Hans turned his head to look across the room he saw Ryder scanning the crowd, looking for a familiar face. Hans stood and waved a hand in the air to try to get his attention. “Hey!” 

When Ryder spotted him he smiled and waved back and began making his way through the crowd towards them. 

“Hey man, howya doing?” Ryder said as he reached the table, clasping a hand onto Hans’s shoulder. Ryder’s eyes then moved from Hans to Merida. “Uh, hi.”

“Hi,” she responded. 

Hans looked back and forth between the two of them. “Have you guys met before?” 

“No,” Ryder said, extending a hand across the table. “Hi, I’m Ryder.”

“I’ve heard a lot about you,” she responded, shaking his hand. “I’m Merida.”

“Likewise,” Ryder responded as he sat down at the table. 

“How’d you get that shiner?” Merida asked. Ryder’s black eye had faded a bit from what Hans had seen of it the previous day, but it was still obvious.

“Saving a cat from a tree,” Ryder answered with a smirk. 

“He’s lying,” Hans said, rolling his eyes. 

“Ok, fine, it wasn’t a cat,” Ryder conceded, but a playful smile remained on his face. “It was actually a kitten. A kitten and a puppy and a little baby bunny. God knows how they all got up in that tree together.” 

“Wow,” Merida said. There was sarcasm in her tone but the corner of her mouth was curled up as she looked at Ryder. “They were lucky you showed up.”

“He actually got the black eye while defending my honor,” Hans told Merida.

“Ooof,” Merida wrinkled her nose. “Yeah, best stick the baby animals in a tree story. You want people to think that you actually saved a worthwhile creature.” 

Hans fake gasped as Ryder began to laugh.

“Do you see how mean she is to me?” Hans said to Ryder, pretending to be hurt. 

“Yeah, but I feel like you probably deserved it,” Ryder responded. Merida laughed at that and it caused Ryder to smile. “So, what were guys talking about before I interrupted?”

“Bigfoot,” Merida answers with no further explanation. 

“Really?” Ryder’s eyes lit up. “I _love_ Bigfoot stuff!”

“What?” Hans and Merida both responded in unison. But before Ryder could elaborate, Anna and Kristoff were arriving back at the table with all their drinks. 

“Yay, you’re here,” Anna said to Ryder as she sat down next to him. “I got a Miller Lite for you since I knew you would be here soon.” 

“Aw, thanks,” he said, taking it from her. “You’re the best.”

Kristoff sat down next to Hans as he handed him his vodka soda, his own Budweiser in his other hand and they exchanged brief smiles.

“So Anna,” Ryder said. “I was just about to school these fools on Bigfoot.”

“Oh!” Anna seemed excited about that. “Ryder knows _so_ much stuff about Bigfoot, you guys. He’s like an expert.”

“Anna, no,” Kristoff said as he gave her a slightly horrified look. “Please tell me you don’t believe in that, that stuff.” 

She rolled her eyes. “I’m not saying that Bigfoot is _definitely_ real, I’m just saying there is a lot of unexplained things out there.”

“Like what?” Merida laughed. 

“ _Things_ ,” Anna insisted. “Stuff. Ryder, back me up.”

“You guys need to have an open mind,” Ryder said before going off about Bigfoot sightings from the 1800’s. 

“Oh my god,” Hans groaned as he dramatically put his head down on the table, hiding his face in his arms and causing Kristoff to laugh. Hans then popped his head back up and pointed at Merida. “You! This is all your fault!”

Merida shrugged innocently and took a sip of her whiskey. “I don’t know what your complaining about,” she said. “I, for one, am excited to get a history lesson. Ryder, continue.” 

“Thank you,” Ryder said, giving her a small bow with his head. “Now, where was I?”

{ ~ }

Ryder and Hans stood to the side of the karaoke stage, flipping through binders of lamented pages full of all the songs available in the system for them to sing. 

Taking a swig of his beer, Ryder looked across the crowded room to where the rest of their group was sitting at their table. Anna was talking and must have said something funny since Kristoff began to chuckle and Merida threw back her head in laughter as she slapped her hand down on the table a few times. Ryder’s attention was more focused on the fact that Kristoff had an arm up around the back of Anna’s chair. There had been casual touches between the two of them the whole night. If he didn’t actually know them he would assume they were boyfriend and girlfriend. 

Anytime Ryder ever brought up Kristoff, Anna would always insist it was just a casual thing. He got the feeling that it was leading to something more though. Maren thought the same thing, too. Ryder glanced over to the person standing next to him, realizing he now had a new source of information for this particular topic. 

“So,” Ryder began, “Now that we’re besties, I have a question I want to ask you.” 

Hans cracked a smile but kept his eyes on the song book. “Yes?”

“What are your feelings on Kristoff?”

His head snapped up to look at Ryder. “What?” Hans asked, seeming taken aback by the question. 

“I mean, I’ve only met him a few times,” Ryder explained. “So I don’t know him that well. Maren likes him, but I figured you would know him even better than her since you and him and Anna hang out each week. So is he like, a good guy? Trustworthy and all that?”

“Oh, um,” Hans chewed on his cheek while he seemed to process Ryder’s questions. “Why do you ask?”

“Anna tends to get bored of guys pretty quick. I don’t mean that as a bad thing. We’re young, it’s college, whatever. But, her and Kristoff,” Ryder shrugged. “I’ve just never seen her stick around the same guy for so long.”

Hans’s face was still as he looked back down at the song book. Ryder wondered why Hans was reacting like this to what he thought was a pretty benign question. The reason why finally clicked in Ryder’s mind, and he felt a wave of embarrassment hit him. 

“Fuck,” Ryder said as he felt his face turn red. “I am _so_ sorry.”

“Why?” Hans asked, his brow furrowed. 

“I totally forgot that you and her, that you guys-,”

“Oh!” His eyes went wide. “No, no, it’s-,”

“I didn’t mean to-,”

“Seriously,” Hans said, lifting his hand. “It was just a one time thing. It feels like forever ago at this point. I barely ever think about it.”

“Ok,” Ryder said quietly, still feeling bad about how he stuck his foot in his mouth. 

“But, um,” Hans said after an awkward moment. “To answer your question, yeah, Kristoff is a good guy. A really good guy, actually. He’s the best.”

“That’s good,” Ryder nodded. “After this whole thing with Joe, I’d hate to see her get caught up with another lying douchebag, ya know?”

“Yeah, totally.” There was a strange expression on Hans’s face as he looked across the bar to where Anna and Kristoff were. Maybe he still had a bit of a crush on Anna. Or maybe it was something else. Even though they had been Officially Friends for a little over twenty-four hours now, Ryder still found Hans a little hard to read. 

“Hey,” Ryder said, clasping a hand onto Hans’s shoulder. “I found us the perfect song: Bon Jovi, Livin’ on a Prayer.” 

Hans cringed but let out a small laugh. “No, I’m not doing that one. That’s a terrible song.”

“But,” Ryder frowned as he tried to make himself sound as serious as possible. “I got a black eye for you.”

Hans groaned. “You’re going to hold that over me forever, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” Ryder smiled. “Now come on, let’s get our hair metal on.” 

{ ~ }

Anna smiled as she watched Ryder and Hans up on the karaoke stage together.

_“We've got to hold on to what we've got,  
It doesn't make a difference if we make it or not,  
We've got each other and that's a lot for love,  
We'll give it a shot.”_

She knew both of them well enough to know that Hans was not the one that picked this song. But still, he was getting into it. _Really_ into it. Hans was dancing around the stage and shaking his hips to the music. Ryder was matching his enthusiasm but definitely not the quality of his dancing, resorting mostly to air guitar.

_“Woah, we're halfway there,  
Woah, livin' on a prayer,  
Take my hand, we'll make it I swear,  
Woah, livin' on a prayer,  
Livin' on a prayer”_

“What a perfect pair of idiots they make,” Merida remarked and it made Kristoff laugh.

{ ~ }

Hans and Ryder were greeted with a round of applause as they returned to the table. 

“That was some fancy dancing up there, fellas,” Merida said, toasting her glass in their direction. 

“Thank you, thank you,” Ryder said, taking a deep bow. He slipped back into his seat but Hans remained standing. 

“How is everyone on drinks?” he asked the group. “I can go up and get us all another round.”

“OK, but this is the last one for me and you,” Ryder said. “We have a game tomorrow so we should switch over to water.” 

“Wait,” Anna tilted her head to the side as she gave him a curious look. “Isn’t tomorrow’s game the one that you got suspended from?”

“That’s true,” Ryder smiled and his eyebrows went up. “I can still drink! Hans, you’re still only allowed water.”

“Fine, whatever,” Hans said with a dismissive wave of his hands. “Everyone else?”

“Yeah, I can use a refill,” Merida said. “I’ll take a-,”

“Wait, wait,” Hans cut her off. “I remember everyone’s order.” He pointed at Kristoff, “Budweiser,” then Anna, “vodka cranberry,” then Ryder, “Miller Lite,” then Merida, “whiskey.” 

“Wow, he can dance _and_ remember drink orders,” Merida smirked. “You got any other special talents?” 

“I do, but none that you’d have any interest in,” he responded with a wink. 

“Hans!” Anna scolded him, looking slightly horrified, but Merida laughed so he knew he was ok. 

“You know what? I’ll come with you,” Kristoff volunteered. “That’s a lot of drinks to carry.”

“Awesome, thank you,” he responded as Kristoff stood. 

Hans moved through the crowd, Kristoff following behind him, and they made their way over to the bar. The students trying to get the attention of bartenders were three deep and it took some time before Hans and Kristoff were able to find an open spot to saddle up to. Once they got up to the bar Hans instantly began looking for a bartender. 

“Hey, so, there is something I wanted to talk to you about,” Kristoff said from where he was on Hans’s left. 

“Uh-huh,” Hans said, mostly listening as he leaned forward to look down towards the end of the bar. The nearest bartender was down there, slowly making some mixed drinks as he flirted with a group of girls. 

“Um, so, the School of Engineering hosts this fancy dinner thing for graduating seniors. A lot of important people from the school come, like the Dean and people like that. Plus recruiters from different companies will be there. It’s kind of a big deal.”

“That sounds really cool,” Hans said, keeping his attention on the bartender and lifting an arm to try to wave him over. 

“Yeah, yeah it is.” Kristoff paused for a moment before continuing on. “I get a plus one and I asked Anna to come with me.”

Hans’s eyes snapped from the bartender over to Kristoff. 

“She said yes,” Kristoff added, as if there were any question that she would. He shrugged and looked down at his hands as he scratched at the wood of the bar. “I figured since I get the plus one then I might as well bring someone. Besides, Maren and Elsa will be there, since Maren is also in the School of Engineering.” 

Hans thought about Ryder’s words from earlier: _‘Maren likes him.’_ Kristoff had become friends with Anna’s sister’s girlfriend. Kristoff and Anna were going on a double date with Anna’s sister and her girlfriend to a fancy school function. 

Kristoff was looking at Hans as if he were waiting for an answer, even though no question had been asked. Was he wondering if Hans was going to be bothered by this news? 

“You know the two of you are allowed to hang out without getting my approval first, right?” Hans said with a smirk, trying to laugh it all off as he ignored the pit in his stomach. 

“No, I know,” Kristoff said, running a hand through his hair. “It’s just, it’s a Friday night. The dinner, that is. It’s two weeks from tonight, actually.”

_Oh._

“What’ll ya have?” the bartender asked. Hans blinked and looked forward to find the bartender staring back at him with an impatient expression on his face. 

“Budweiser, Miller Lite, vodka cranberry, a water, and a whisky, straight up,” he said, rattling off all their drink orders. The bartender turned to go get started on them and Hans took out his wallet. He looked down as he began to take some cash out for the drinks.

“Want to split this round?” Kristoff offered.

“I got it,” Hans said as he tossed the money that wasn’t even his onto the bar. 

“I know the three of us normally hang out together on Fridays,” Kristoff said after some silence, but then left the words just hanging there, heavy in the air. Was the acknowledgement meant to be some sort of half hearted apology? Hans felt irritation beginning to prickle up inside of him. He didn’t need to be fucking pittied or coddled. He wasn’t dependent on the two of them to have a good time on a Friday night. 

“It sounds like a nice night. I’m sure you and Anna will have fun,” Hans said, trying to keep his voice neutral, before looking back in the direction of the bartender who was currently making their drinks. 

“Are you sure you’re good?” Kristoff pressed. 

Hans hated the question. He knew that Kristoff was asking out of genuine concern but, like, _fuck_ , what the hell was Hans suppsoed to say? Was he supposed to expect Kristoff not to go? Kristoff was graduating and deserved to have a night to celebrate it. And was Hans supposed to expect Anna not to go with him? A fancy night out with Kristoff, Elsa, and Maren? Anna would love that. 

There was literally no reasonable reason whatsoever for Kristoff and Anna to not go to this dinner together. In fact, it would be completely _unreasonable_ for Hans to expect them not to go just because it was on a Friday. 

So then why did it all feel like a heavy weight in his chest?

“Yes,” Hans answered. “And the two of you don’t need to hire a babysitter for me either, I’ll be fine.” There was a bit more sarcasm in his tone than he intended. 

Hans leaned his elbows onto the bar and looked away from Kristoff. It was then that Hans noticed a guy a couple of spots down from him at the bar looking right at him. The guy smiled at Hans as they made eye contact. He was cute, really cute, with tan skin and hazel eyes. Hans smiled back at him. The guy must have taken that as an invitation as he began to walk over. 

“Hey, Red,” he said to Hans in a smooth, deep voice once he reached him. “Those were some nice moves you had up there on the karaoke stage.” 

“Oh, you saw that huh?” Hans responded with a smile as he turned to face the guy more. The guy was tall. Not as tall as Kristoff, but pretty close. 

“Hard to miss. Though, I have to say, that song choice?” the guy smirked as he scrunched up his face and held up a hand, shaking it back and forth in an _‘ehh’_ motion. 

The bartender came by then and dropped off some of the drinks Hans had ordered for the group. Hans didn’t acknowledge it, or the fact that Kristoff was still silently standing behind him. 

“My friend chose the song,” Hans said to the guy. “And he’s straight so it’s not his fault that he has terrible taste.” 

The guy laughed. “Yeah, they are pretty helpless, aren’t they?”

The bartender dropped off the rest of their drinks then. Without saying a word, Kristoff began to collect them up. He tucked his and Ryder’s beer bottles between his arm and his body and then picked up Anna and Merida’s drinks in his hands. He left Hans’s water behind as he began to walk back over to their group.

“Want me to get some of those?” Hans asked, but Kristoff was already walking away and didn’t respond. 

“Oop, did I just step on something?” The guy asked with a slight wince as he watched Kristoff walk away.

“No, no. You’re good,” Hans said looking back at the guy. He was really cute, and he was clearly trying to flirt with Hans. It was still early in the night though. Hans didn’t need to find someone to go home with quite yet. “But, um, I am here with a group of friends and I should be getting back to them.”

“Ok,” the guy nodded, not seeming too put off. “Well, if you change your mind I’ll be around.”

Hans said goodbye, picked up his water, and then hurried off. 

“Need me to carry any of that?” he asked as he caught up to Kristoff. 

“I got it,” Kristoff responded, his voice and face neutral. Kristoff didn’t seem bothered or upset by what had just happened. Which was good, obviously. It’s not like Kristoff was actually going to get jealous of Hans talking to someone else. The thing Hans and Kristoff had going on clearly wasn’t enough to bring out those types of feelings. Which, again, was good. 

When they got back to the table Kristoff began handing everyone their drinks. Kristoff then sat down next to Anna, putting an arm around her and letting his hand settle on her hip. Whatever. Hans deserved that, he supposed. He felt a bit embarrassed actually, knowing that he had acted petty and small up at the bar

Why the fuck had he done that? Flirting with that random guy in front of Kristoff? Had Hans been trying to prove some kind of point? Trying to prove that he didn’t give a shit about Kristoff and Anna going out on a fancy date together? Trying to prove that he didn’t actually feel hurt at the reminder of his true place among the three of them - that Anna and Kristoff would always be each other’s first choice and he came in second for both of them?

Hans had predicted it way back when he first started this up - this choice to secretly carry on sleeping with both of them - that there was a chance that Anna and Kristoff would catch real feelings for each other. He had told himself, warned himself, that if that ever happened that he would need to step back without hesitation. Hans had told himself that he wouldn’t get in the way. It seemed like such an easy and obvious thing back then. But now? 

Hans took a sip of his water and nodded along to the conversation that he wasn’t really paying attention to. 

Was this it, this dinner? Was this the sign that Anna and Kristoff were moving towards becoming something more than just friends with benefits? Ryder, who knew Anna as well as almost anyone, saw that there was something more happening between her and Kristoff. Hans wondered if Elsa and Maren saw it too. He imagined a group text between the three of them, chatting away about how great Anna and Kristoff would be together. All of them wondering what it could be that was keeping the two of them from figuring it out for themselves, from seeing the obvious and finally getting together for real. None of them knowing the truth about what was really going on. 

Hans was alone in that, in knowing the full truth of everything. It hadn’t ever felt so isolating until that very moment. 

He was so caught up in his own thoughts that it took Hans a little while to notice that the rest of the table had gone quiet. He looked up to find Kristoff, Ryder, and Merida all looking at him with their pointer fingers touching the tips of their noses in a ‘not it’ symbol. Anna, meanwhile, was smiling at him. 

“Shit, what did I miss?” he asked. 

“I was just saying that I needed someone to go up to the karaoke stage and do Heaven Is a Place on Earth with me,” Anna said. “I sing that song everytime I come here. And these three are being party poopers,” she gave Kristoff, Ryder, and Merida quick glares, “so you’re going to do it.”

“Why me?” Hans whined. “I’ve already sung one terrible 80’s song tonight.”

“I’ve sung it with her before,” Merida noted. 

“Me too,” Ryder added. “Many, _many_ times.”

“And I don’t do karaoke, so,” Kristoff shrugged before taking a swig of his beer. 

“I don’t do karaoke,” Hans muttered, dropping his voice down to imitate Kristoff. It caused the other man to huff and crack a small smile. A good sign, he thought, that there wasn’t a lingering awkwardness between them. 

“You guys act like it’s some horrible thing. I love the song. It’s so,” Anna hugged herself. “It’s just so _nice_.”

“Ok, ok,” Hans said with a smile as he stood back up. “Let’s go do your nice, terrible song.”

“Yay!” Anna went to stand but then stopped. “Wait.” She picked up her drink and took a couple of gulps. “Ok, now.” 

{ ~ }

Anna was fully in her element up on the karaoke stage and, despite his protests, Hans seemed to be enjoying himself too.

_“Ooh, baby, do you know what that's worth?  
Ooh, Heaven is a place on Earth,  
They say in Heaven, love comes first,  
We'll make Heaven a place on Earth,  
Ooh, Heaven is a place on Earth”_

Kristoff wasn’t sure if that had actually gone well or not, the way that he had told Hans about the dinner. Maybe it had been a mistake to bring it up tonight. He had thought that if he did it in a casual, no big deal kind of way then it would all go over smoother.

And, that had worked, he supposed. Hans hadn’t even seemed bothered at all. Which was good, right? It’s not like Kristoff _wanted_ Hans to be upset or feel jealous. And there was obviously no reality where Hans would have said something like _‘I wish I could go with you instead.’_

_“When I feel alone,  
I reach for you, and you bring me home,  
When I'm lost at sea,  
I hear your voice, and it carries me”_

It would be a lie though to say his only reason for trying to downplay the significance of the dinner was to save Hans’s feelings. The truth was Kristoff had been downplaying it in an attempt to try to hide his own feelings, and to hide how much he had come to care about Hans.

In his current reality, Anna was the only person he could take with him to the senior dinner. But deep down, under all his fears, there was a part of Kristoff that would want to have Hans as his date on a night like that. The thing he would want most though, if he was really letting himself think in fantasy, was both of them being his date.

_"In this world, we're just beginnin',  
To understand the miracle of livin',  
Baby, I was afraid before,  
But I'm not afraid anymore"_

Kristoff had been attracted to other men before Hans. He had tried to lie to himself about it and shove it all to the back of his mind, but it had been there. What he had begun to start feeling for Hans though? It was different then anything he had ever felt for another man. It felt like more, it felt like something real. It was a dangerous road to go down, Kristoff knew. Hans seemed to almost take pride in his ability to avoid any type of romantic attachment. So, it was stupid for Kristoff to allow himself to develop these types of feelings for someone who - for many reasons - there was no chance of a future with.

_"Ooh, baby, do you know what that's worth?  
Ooh, Heaven is a place on Earth,  
They say in Heaven, love comes first,  
We'll make Heaven a place on Earth,  
Ooh, Heaven is a place on Earth"_

Stupid like the way that Kristoff had allowed himself to get jealous of Hans flirting with another guy up at the bar. That was spectacularly stupid. Kristoff was going home with Anna tonight so what right did he have to get jealous of Hans flirting with some rando? Even if the guy had used a completely lame pick up line and referred to Hans as _Red_. Like, what the fuck was _that?_

As the song ended, Kristoff put his beer down to free his hands for clapping. Anna and Hans were both taking dramatic bows and blowing kisses to the crowd as they left the stage. Kristoff smiled, thinking about how bright and beautiful and _alive_ they both were. 

{ ~ }

“We should do this again tomorrow tonight,” Ryder declared as the five of them walked out of The Trading Post and into the night air. 

“Can’t,” Kristoff said, sounding disappointed. “I work Saturday nights.”

“Right, of course,” Ryder said as he gave him a light punch on the arm. “Pizza man! 

“You… make pizza?” Merida asked, a bit confused. 

“No, I just deliver it. I work for Fredo’s.”

“Oh, cool,” Merida smiled. “On Sundays The Q Center has pizza and movie nights in their lounge and we always order from there.”

“Do you also sit around in a feelings circle and talk about your childhood?” Hans snarked. 

“Maybe you should come one day and find out,” Merida responded, giving him a nudge with her elbow. 

“Pass.” 

Anna smiled at their playful banter. Her circle of friends had gotten smaller over the past week, and it had been a hard experience, but for the first time she was actually feeling grateful for it. Grateful because she knew the friends she had left were true and trustworthy. 

“Maybe the four of us can hang out again tomorrow night and Kristoff will just be there in spirit.” Anna looped her arm in his, squeezing his bicep, and Kristoff smiled down at her.

They all said their goodbyes then, Anna and Kristoff turning left to walk the two blocks back to his apartment while Hans, Ryder, and Merida all headed off in the direction of campus together. 

{ ~ }

As they stepped into his apartment, Kristoff tossed his keys onto the kitchen counter. 

“Tonight was so much fun,” Anna said wistfully as she clutched her purse in both hands. 

“Yeah, it was a good time.” And it had been, despite that one bit of awkwardness with Hans. 

“You sound a little tired,” Anna said with a touch of concern in her voice as she walked over to him.

“A little, I guess,” he said with a half shrug 

“Not _too_ tired, I hope,” she said suggestively as she began to tug on the fabric of his shirt. 

Kristoff smiled at her as he brought his hands up to her face. “Definitely not too tired for that.” 

“Good,” Anna said with a grin before tugging harder on his shirt to pull him down for a kiss. 

Even though Anna’s heels helped to close the one foot difference in their heights, Kristoff still had to crane his neck down quite a bit in order for them to kiss. It was ok for a moment or so, but then he needed to get them on the same level. Kristoff ran his hands down her sides and bent his knees a bit in order to get a good grip under her backside before lifting her up. Anna wrapped her legs around his waist and flashed him a bright smile. 

“I love it when you pick me up like that,” she giggled before kissing him again. 

Kristoff kissed her back, trying to ignore the way her words sent an electric shock through his body. He walked towards the bedroom, pushing the door open with his foot. Once inside the room he began to toe off his shoes while still holding her, which caused him to stumble slightly. Anna shrieked with laughter and clutched him tighter.

“Oh my god, if you dropped me I would kill you.”

“I’m not going to drop you,” Kristoff cooed, kissing at her neck. He got one of his knees on the bed and then gently laid Anna down. He settled himself between her legs as their lips met again. 

After a bit of kissing and touching, Kristoff rolled himself onto his back, taking Anna with him. Now on top, Anna pulled back from the kiss to look down at him. Kristoff needed to use both hands to hold back Anna’s hair from falling into her face. Her smile was bright and her eyes sparkled as she looked down at him. 

Anna looked gorgeous without any makeup, of course, but Kristoff always liked the way she would do her eye makeup on nights out like this - the black eyeliner and dark, smokey eyeshadow. It made the color of her aqua eyes pop as well as giving them a bit of a wicked look. As he looked up at those eyes, Kristoff knew that he would let Anna have him any way that she wanted him. 

Kristoff slowly pulled her face back down to his and kissed her. Anna kissed him back, pressing her tongue into his mouth as her fingers slipped under the hem of his christ and began to gently scratch at his skin. 

{ ~ }

“So, ok, wait,” Hans was doing his best to not laugh. “This girl Chloe, _deadass_ , looked you right in the eyes and told you that you had to choose between her and Anna?”

“Yep,” Ryder nodded. He was giving them a full rundown of what had happened earlier in the week and the details of all this drama were even more ridiculous and juicy then Hans had known. 

“And she really thought that would work out for her?” Merida scoffed. 

“Yep,” Ryder nodded again. The three of them looked both ways before crossing the last street before stepping back onto campus. They then made their way down a winding path that would lead them towards the freshman dorms. 

“And all because of some second hand rumor that some other girl had told her about?” 

“Yep.”

“Those girls kinda sound like bitches,” Merida said, shaking her head as they walked.

“They are! They’re such bitches!” Ryder sighed and slumped his shoulders. “I can’t believe I almost fell in love with one of the bitches.”

“Always a mistake,” Hans noted. 

“Yeah man, you got to stay away from bitches,” Merida added. 

“Ryder,” Hans put an arm around his shoulders. “The best way to forget about her is to get laid. All you need to do is just say the word and I can help you out.”

“No, no, no,” Merida reached across Ryder to give Hans a light shove. “Ryder, I said stay _away_ from bitches.”

“Me?” Hans gasped, bringing his hands up to chest and pretending to be offended. “ _I’m_ bitches? How dare you?”

“Hey,” Merida smiled back at him. “Don’t get mad at me because of truth and facts.” 

“She’s right,” Hans said with an overly dramatic sigh. “I’d just break your heart, Ryder.”

“Oh, without a doubt,” Ryder laughed. “Even if I was able to switch teams, there is no way I could handle,” he gestured widely in Hans’s direction, “all that.”

The three of them laughed as they continued their walk across campus. Hans and Ryder walked Merida back to her dorm and then parted ways, Ryder going off in the direction of Castle Hall as Hans began to make his way to the other side of campus to where the sophomore residence halls were. There were a couple of other students around, seemingly also heading back to their rooms after a night out. 

Despite that whole… _thing_ with Kristoff, it had actually been a pretty fun night. Him and Ryder did karaoke again, but thankfully Hans got to pick the song the second time so they did some Carly Rae Jepsen instead of another terrible power ballad. Merida had tried to teach them all how to play darts, which was hit or miss in its success. Hans felt he did pretty well for never having played before. Ryder on the other hand, _whew_ , that boy struggled to even hit the board nevermind the target. One close call with a group of girls that happened to be standing near the dart board resulted in Kristoff permanently taking away Ryder’s dart playing privileges. 

As Hans walked he passed by a tipsy looking couple going in the opposite direction, their arms around each other’s waists as they giggled and staggered slightly. It was only then that Hans realized that he was going home alone that night. 

Hans had totally forgotten about that cute guy with the hazel eyes who had hit on him up at the bar. And it hadn’t even occurred to him at any other time during the night to try to find someone to go home with. What did that say about him? That he was just having a fun night out with friends and didn’t once think about sex? 

Lame. 

He was reminded of how he hadn’t slept with anyone besides Anna or Kristoff since before mid semester break. Which, in light of the news that Anna and Kristoff had a fancy date planned, seemed potentially bad. Was Hans letting himself get too attached to them while they were moving closer and closer to each other? 

It wasn’t that he didn’t _want_ to have sex with anyone else. Hans knew that couldn’t be it. It’s just that there were always things that got in the way. His Saturdays and Sundays were already spoken for. And Hans didn’t go out during the week anymore since he was at least _trying_ to stay more focused on school work this semester. That only left Friday nights then. 

The first Friday night after break had been the night that Anna had told them about her parent’s divorce. She didn’t want to go out to a party that night so Hans and Kristoff had been good friends and stayed in and watched a movie with her. The second Friday night after break had been the one where he had ran into Andrea and they left the party together. So, Hans _had_ been trying to have sex with someone else that night. Wasn’t his fault that Andrea turned out to be a huge bitch.

Then there had been last Friday night, the night the three of them - at Anna’s request - had drank way too much jungle juice and all got wasted. And, again, it wasn’t that Hans didn’t _want_ to sleep with anyone that night, it was just that by the time he had left Kristoff’s apartment it was so late and Hans was so drunk that there was no choice but to go straight to bed. He had seen Eric that night though. Hans had kissed him and had unsuccessfully tried to talk him into a quickie in the bushes. That had to count for something, right?

But, _fuck_ , Hans had promised Eric that he would text him and that they would hang out for real one night. He should really follow through on that promise and not be a complete asshole. Not now, not tonight. It was getting late and Hans did have a lacrosse game tomorrow.

It occurred to him then, the exact night he should spend with Eric: the night Anna and Kristoff were going on their date to the senior dinner. Him and Eric would go out, have some drinks, have some fun. Then they’d go back to Eric’s place and have some amazing, meaningless, no-strings-attached sex - just like the two of them had done plenty of times before.

It would be the perfect distraction. 

{ ~ }

Kristoff was lying sprawled out on his back in his bed. Anna was tucked in close under one arm, her head resting on his chest. He could feel her slow steady breaths and knew that she was sound asleep. Rest wasn’t coming so easy to him, though. Kristoff was wide awake as he stared up at the ceiling in the dark, thinking about Anna’s words from earlier. 

_‘I love it when you pick me up like that.’_

Why were the words doing this to him? Making his chest tight and his mind swim? He was reading way too much into them, right?

On most nights out Anna would say how much she _loved_ a particular song at least three times. Anna _loved_ the hot chocolate from Starbucks. She _loved_ when a fresh tray of french fries was put out just as she was getting in line for dinner in the freshman dining hall. She _loved_ that trope in romcoms where two people started off in a bickering feud and then eventually got together by the end of the movie. She _loved_ her favorite shade of lipstick. She _loved_ this one particular couch in the student union building that she insisted was the most comfortable. She _loved_ it whenever she found a cool shell or a piece of sea glass on the beach in the summer. 

Anna simply used that word a lot. That’s all it was. Nothing more. 

Kristoff pressed a kiss to the top of her hair, smelling the familiar floral of her shampoo mixed with the scents of the bar from that night, and then closed his eyes.


	45. Chapter 45

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Be who you are and fuck what everyone else thinks.” - Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Content warning: homophobia/biphobia, references to past bullying/verbal abuse]

Hans gathered up his cleats, his jersey, and all the other gear he needed for that day’s game, shoving it down into his bag before rubbing his forehead. Exhaustion hung heavy in his brain. Hans had struggled to fall asleep the night before, tossing and turning in his bed for hours. He actually hadn’t been sleeping well that whole week. Regardless, Hans had to brush off the tiredness and focus. Making the playoffs was still not a sure thing for their team and every game from now till the end of the season was important. 

He heaved his heavy equipment bag up over his shoulder and headed out of his room and into the common area of the suite. Torres was sitting on one of the couches, his own bag at his feet. Their other three suitemates were milling about, getting their stuff together. They all stopped what they were doing when he walked into the room though, all looking at him with unsure expressions. 

Hans hadn’t spoken to any of them since Wednesday afternoon when they had all refused to tell him what the fight between Ryder and O’Malley had been about. The five of them would normally walk over to the athletic center together on game days, but Hans wasn’t in the mood for more awkward silences. Without a word, Hans walked straight out the front door, closing it hard behind him.

~

Hans stood in the locker room, adjusting the straps on his shoulder pads. Everyone else on the team was there too by that point, getting themselves suited up for the game. Well, _almost_ everyone. While Ryder and O’Malley were both suspended from today’s game, Coach Mattias was still requiring them to be in attendance. Ryder was sitting next to Hans on a bench in a t-shirt and shorts, a bottle of Gatorade in his hands as he waited around for the team to finish getting ready. 

Hans kept glancing across the locker room at where O’Malley was. He was talking to Anderson and Sullivan while they got their gear on but, just like Ryder, he was only in a t-shirt and shorts. This was the first time the two of them were in the same room since Hans found out exactly what O’Malley had said about him. Hans hadn’t expected it to still be clawing at him like this, but he couldn’t get it out of his mind. O’Malley had stood here, right here in this locker room, and called Hans _that_ word. And to do something like that O’Malley must have assumed that there would be no repercussions, not push back from the rest of the guys on the team. And, if it weren’t for Ryder, that would have been true. 

While Hans appreciated the fact that Ryder had stood up for him, he really didn't want anyone fighting his battles for him. He had faced down worse in his life and Hans knew he was perfectly capable of handling whatever O’Malley could throw at him. Sure, O’Malley was bigger than him, but Hans knew he would be able to hold his own in a fight. Not that he _wanted_ to fight O’Malley, or anyone for that matter, but he _could_. If he needed to. 

As he stared at the back of O’Malley’s head from across the room, Hans thought about every time someone had said some shit to him about his sexuality. Every comment, every joke, every name, all of it, it was all swirling around inside of his head. His dad, his brothers, his old teammates. Hans thought also about that night earlier this semester, when he was at that party and getting refills for himself, Anna, and Kristoff. O’Malley, Anderson, and Sullivan had all been in the kitchen and they had tossed jokes and snickers his way as Hans stood at the keg filling the cups. And what had Hans done that night? Nothing. He just stood there and took it. Why? Because he had been too scared to do anything else. 

But Hans was done with being scared. 

“Hans?” Ryder asked cautiously, clearly noticing something was up with him.

Hans began walking forward, his eyes still locked on O’Malley. 

“Hans,” Ryer repeated as he stood and grabbed his arm. Hans stopped and looked back at him. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

“I got this,” Hans said quietly. 

“Ok,” Ryder said, dropping his hold. “But I’m coming with you.” 

Hans nodded and turned his attention back to O’Malley. As he walked across the locker room, Ryder right behind him, Hans could hear everyone’s voices quieting down to a hushed murmur and he could feel all of their eyes on him. O’Malley still hadn’t noticed him though, even by the time Hans had come to a stop directly behind him. 

“O’Malley,” Hans said in a demanding tone. The senior turned around to face him, first glancing around the locker room, clearly noticing that all of the attention was on them, before giving Hans a dirty look. 

“What the fuck do _you_ want?” he asked dismissively. 

Hans took a breath and tightened his hands into fists at his sides. “Next time you have something to say about me you should be a man and say it to my face.” 

“Excuse me?” O’Malley snarled, stepping closer to him. “I don’t need lessons on how to be a man from _you_.” 

“Apparently you do,” Hans responded. “You wait till I walk out of the room to say shit and then you try to sucker punch a rookie? That’s some bitch ass shit.”

“I-,”

“ _No_ ,” Hans snapped, feeling adrenaline flood through him as his heartbeat pounded in his ears. “I’m done with all your shit. If you have a problem with me then we can take it outside and settle it. Otherwise, you keep it to yourself.” 

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” O’Malley asked, a smug smile on his face. “Getting pounded by another dude?”

“Yes!” Hans nearly shouted, holding his arms out to his sides. “I _love_ it. I love a big dick in my ass!” He heard some gasps and shocked laughter from the rest of the team and saw O’Malley pale as his eyes went wide. “If you have a problem with the fact that I fuck guy then that’s _your_ fucking problem. And, honestly? I think you’re just jealous because I’ve fucked guys that are prettier than any girl that’s ever come within five feet of your dick.” 

There was more laughter from the rest of the guys and Hans could hear Ryder right behind him chuckling out a “Holy shit.” 

The shocked expression on O’Malley’s face slowly transformed into a scowl as he stepped closer to Hans. 

“You’re such an arrogant little _prick_ ,” he said, giving Hans a small shove 

Hans saw Ryder in the edge of his vision moving forward and he put an arm out to stop him, but then a voice from his other side spoke up.

“Dude, enough of this shit.” Hans looked to his left to find Torres glaring at O’Malley. “Seriously, just shut the fuck up. No one wants to hear it anymore.”

“No one asked you,” Anderson shot back from where he was standing by O’Malley’s side. 

“And no one asked to hear all his bullshit,” Lee responded. 

Hans scanned the crowd behind him. Some guys had annoyed or uncomfortable looks on their faces while others were looking away, pretending as if nothing was happening. But most of the guys were nodding in agreement with Torres and Lee, their angry and frustrated expressions directed at O’Malley. Hans squeezed his fists into tighter balls. His teammates were standing up for him. 

“Everything ok here?” a deep voice echoed out and everyone turned their head to find Coach Mattias standing in the doorway with his arms crossed. 

“Yep,” O’Malley said, a touch of sarcasm in his voice as he turned away from Hans. “Everything’s just fine.” 

Mattias gave him a disbelieving look before his eyes focused in on Hans. 

“All good,” Hans eked out before heading back over to finish getting ready. Mattias seemed to accept their responses, going off towards his office, while the rest of the team returned their attention to suiting up. 

“Dude,” Ryder whispered as he walked alongside Hans. “That was the greatest thing I have ever seen in my entire life.”

“Yeah?” Hans huffed out a laugh. “Because I felt like I was about to pass out the entire time.” 

~

Once everyone was finally suited up, and they had listened to Coach Mattias go through the plans and plays for the game, the team began heading out of the locker room. Hans was walking side by side with Ryder up the hill that led to the field when he heard a voice call out to him. 

“Westergaard, wait up!”

Hans looked over his shoulder to see his four suitemates - Torres, Lee, Furlong, and Greco - all jogging up to him. He and Ryder stopped walking as they approached. 

“Hey, um, can we talk?” Torres asked. He looked between Ryder and Hans. “Ya know, just us?” 

Ryder gave Hans a questioning look but Hans gave him a reassuring nod. “It’s ok, I’ll catch up.” Ryder nodded back and then continued on in the direction of the field with the rest of the team. Once he was gone Hans looked back at his suitemates. 

“So, um,” Lee began. “I guess you found out what the fight between Nattura and O’Malley was about.”

“Yeah,” Hans said flatly. “No thanks to you guys.” It was a bit harsh but none of the guys pushed back on it, instead they all just looked guilty. 

“You know that we don’t-, we never-,” Greco began but then faltered and looked around at the other guys for help. 

“O’Malley is an asshole,” Furlong said firmly. “None of us agree with him when it comes to all that stuff. We never have.” 

Hans looked down at his feet as he kicked at the dirt with the toe of his cleat. He hadn’t expected anyone besides Ryder to stand up for him back in the locker room, but they had. He wasn’t sure how to react to it, wasn’t sure if he could trust it. 

“You know that, right?” Greco asked. “You know that none of us have a problem with you liking guys?”

Hans shook his head. “How the hell am I supposed to just _know_ that? You didn’t stand up for me on Wednesday. How many other times has someone said something like that and you guys just stayed quiet?” 

“Um, well,” Torres said, his voice hesitant. “O’Malley, Anderson, and Sullivan they, they’ve said stuff before but it was always just vague macho man bullshit.”

“Exactly,” Furlong agreed. “Nothing explicitly homophobic. At least, well, at least until Wednesday that is.” 

“They _have_ said stuff like that before,” Hans lifted his head back and looked them all in the eyes. “They’ve said it to me, when no one else is around.”

Torres winced. “Really?”

“Why didn’t you ever say something?” Lee asked. 

Hans let out a long, frustrated breath. How could even explain it to them, the certainty he would always feel that he wouldn’t be believed or taken seriously? 

“Because, _again_ , how the fuck was I supposed to know that you guys would even care?” he asked them. “And also, why didn’t you guys want to tell me what the fight was about on Wednesday? Because that felt like confirmation that I was right not to trust you guys with this stuff.”

“Well, I can’t speak for everyone but,” Greco twisted his lacrosse stick around in his hands. “I was… embarrassed. The idea of telling you what O’Malley had said about you and then also having to admit that I did nothing about it? I-,” he shook his head.

“We should have said something, though,” Furlong admitted. “Not just that day but a long time ago. We’re sorry.” 

“And we will,” Lee added. “From now on, anyone says anything even a step out of line and we’ll shut that shit down instantly.”

“That’s right,” Torres declared. “You’re our teammate. And our roomie. We got your back.” The rest of the guys all nodded in agreement. 

Hans bit down on the inside of his cheek and curled his toes inside of his cleats. He was _not_ going to get all emotional right before a game. 

“So are we-, are we cool?” Greco asked, his voice hopeful. 

“Yeah,” Hans nodded. “Yeah, we’re good.”

The four of them smiled and walked closer to him. 

“Oh god,” Hans groaned as they all began hugging him at once. “No, no, stop.”

“No, this is happening,” Torres said, giving him an extra squeeze. Hans grumbled but couldn’t completely fight back the smile that was spreading across his face. 

“Alright, alright,” Hans rolled his shoulders and the guys finally stepped back. “Come on, we have a game to go win.”

{ ~ }

“It’s such a nice day,” Anna said as she tilted her head back, basking in the rays of the nearly midday sun, the light bouncing off her black, cat-eye sunglasses. 

“It is,” Kristoff noted as he walked alongside her. He had just picked her up from her dorm and they were walking together across campus to where Hans’s lacrosse game would be. 

“Did you make sure to put sunscreen on?” she asked him.

“Sunscreen?” he chuckled. “It’s spring. And we’re just going to watch a game, we’re not going to the beach.”

“Kristoff,” Anna stopped walking and lifted her sunglasses up to rest on the top of her head. “It’s really sunny and there won’t be any shade where we’ll be sitting in the stands. We need to put some sunscreen on you or you’ll burn.”

“Honestly, I don’t really burn.” Kristoff shrugged as he looked back in the direction from which they were coming from. “Besides, if we go all the way back to your dorm now then we’ll miss the beginning of the game.”

“No need to go all the way back,” Anna said as she began to dig into her purse. “Here, I have a sunscreen face stick.”

“Really? You keep that in your purse?” 

“I’m very serious about sunscreen.” 

“I’m starting to see that.”

“As a ginger I have to be. Hans would agree with me if he were here. Now,” she motioned with her hand. “Bend down so I can reach your face.”

With a light laugh, Kristoff closed his eyes and leaned forward. He heard the pop of the cap coming off and then Anna began to apply the sunscreen stick to his nose, cheeks, and forehead. It felt a little weird as she put it on, but it had a nice coconut smell. 

Kristoff opened his eyes once she heard her putting the cap back on the stick, thinking that she was done. However, Anna then began to rub the sunscreen into his skin, her fingertips making small circles across his face. He left his eyes open as she did this, watching the serious focus in her expression, the tip of her tongue caught between her teeth as she took special care to apply it everywhere. Kristoff’s eyes drifted over the freckles of her face and the way the sun made her hair shine. 

“There,” Anna with a satisfied smile as his hand dropped away from his face. “Now you’re good.”

“Hmm,” he hummed as leaned in closer to her. “I think you might have missed a spot.” 

“Oh, did I?” she teased before Kristoff closed the distance between them and pressed his mouth to hers. Kristoff tilted his head to the side as he deepened the kiss and brought a hand up to her hip to pull her closer. 

Anna giggled between kisses. “You’re going to cause the sunscreen on both of our faces to rub off.”

“We can just reapply.” 

“That’s very true,” she responded with a twinkle in her eye as her fingers began to gather up the fabric of his shirt to pull him back into a kiss. 

A wolf whistle caused them both to jump and Kristoff quickly stood up straight. When he looked in the direction that the whistle had come from he saw Maren and Elsa walking towards them. Maren was laughing and Elsa, while also smiling, was giving her girlfriend a gentle elbow in the ribs. 

“Hey guys,” Anna said with a small wave, before dropping her sunglasses back down onto her face. 

“Sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt anything,” Maren grinned as they reached them.

“Oh, of course not,” Kristoff responded dryly. 

“Come on,” Elsa said as she pulled a still giggling Maren along. “Let’s not be late.”

By the time the four of them reached the field, the players for both teams were busy with their warmups - the Arendelle University players in their white jerseys with green and purple lettering and the visiting team in bright red. Kristoff scanned the field looking for Hans. He spotted him - jersey number 13 - lined up with other players from his team and doing some stretches. Hans first reached his arms high up over his head and then bent forward, touching his toes. Kristoff knew that _he_ definitely could not reach forward and touch his own toes like that. He remembered then, the day he found out just how flexible Hans could be. Clearing his throat, Kristoff looked away to not get caught staring.

“Hey guys,” a voice called out and Kristoff looked up to see Ryder jogging over to them. He wasn’t suited up like the other players, instead Ryder was wearing a t-shirt with the Arendelle University Lacrosse logo on the front and a pair of shorts. He had a bottle of Gatorade in his hands and he took a swig as he approached them. “Thanks for coming to watch me not play,” he joked. 

“You're not playing and yet you’re still chugging Gatorade,” Elsa noted. 

“Yeah, I’m mildly hungover, so,” Ryder shrugged and took another swig from his bottle. Kristoff cracked a smile, remembering the night before. 

“Are you going to sit with us in the stands?” Anna asked.

“I can’t,” Ryder responded. “We’re suspended but we still have to sit on the bench for the whole game. It’s a ‘sit there and think about what you’ve done’ kinda thing.”

“So I’m guessing that guy,” Maren said as she pointed across the field, “is what’s-his-name that you got in the fight with?” Kristoff looked where she was pointing and saw a guy dressed like Ryder sitting by himself on the Arendelle University bench.

“Yeah. That’s O’Malley,” Ryder confirmed. 

“O’Malley,” Maren repeated, her eyes narrowing and contempt dripping from her voice. “I’d like to give him a piece of my mind.” 

“Ok,” Ryder laughed. “Simmer down, sis.”

“What?” Maren looked back at him. “It’s my job to protect you. You’re my little brother.”

“I’m taller than you.”

“Irrelevant.”

The refs started to blow their whistles then, indicating that the game was about to start.

“Ok, I have to get back over to the bench,” Ryder said and they all made their goodbyes to him before he jogged off. 

As they walked over to the stands Kristoff looked back across the field at O’Malley. He wasn’t sure if it was the sour puss on his face or the way he was sitting slightly slouched with arms crossed, but Kristoff got the feeling the guy was a real douche bag. Hans had mentioned that the fight between Ryder and O’Malley had something to do with him. That this guy had a grudge against Hans for taking his spot in the starting lineup. 

_I’d like to see him try to start some shit while I’m around_ , Kristoff thought to himself before following Anna, Maren, and Elsa up into the stands. 

{ ~ }

Hans felt the sweat dripping down his face. His breath was heavy and his side was still sore from a hard hit earlier in the game. The score was tied 3-3 and the game had gone into overtime. The next team to score would win the game. 

Number 29 from the opposing team lined up next to Hans as everyone got in position for the face off. The guy had been on him like glue the whole game. Hans knew that if he had any chance of making a play he’d need to lose him as quickly as possible. 

The whistle blew for the face off and Hans instantly darted away from his defender. Looking over his shoulder he saw that Torres had won the face off. Hans held up his stick and Torres quickly shot the ball in his direction. Hans caught it and then looked forward again. 

His heart was pounding in his chest and sprinted as fast as he could up the field, staying a step ahead of the other team’s defense. As he approached the goal Hans stutter stepped, faking that he would be aiming in one way. The opposing team’s goalie fell for the fake, jumping over to one side. Hans spun in the other direction, making a behind the back shot at the now empty part of the goal. 

As soon as the ball made contact with the back of the net a loud cheer erupted from the crowd. Hans pumped his fist and then turned around to see his teammates all charging at him, their arms raised up in the air. Torres was the first to reach him, nearly knocking Hans over with a bear hug. The other guys surrounded him too, patting his shoulder and giving him headbutts with their helmets. 

Hans looked up into the stands to find the now familiar sight of Anna and Kristoff cheering him on. Anna was jumping up and down clapping her hands, her bright red hair bouncing in the sunlight. Kristoff cupped his hands around his mouth and let out a loud _‘WOO!’_ before waving at Hans. 

{ ~ }

That night Anna, Hans, Ryder, and Merida were all at The Trading Post together, sitting around a table talking and laughing. Anna wished that Kristoff could be there with them like he was the night before, but she understood that he needed to work. 

“I can get this next round,” Hans said after finishing off his drink. 

“No,” Ryder waved his hand as he stood. “After that game winning play today? You’re not paying for a single drink tonight. Next round is on me.”

“Ok, ok,” Hans conceded with a small smile. Anna had noticed that he didn’t actually like to brag or make a big deal out of the times he would make a big play and save the game. Not the kind of thing she probably would have expected from him the first time she met him, but Hans had turned out to defy a lot of Anna’s initial assumptions about him. 

“I’ll come with you,” Merida offered and the two of them headed off to the front room where the bar was. 

Once they were gone Hans glanced over at her with that grin of his that always sent a spark through her. Anna thought about the way Hans had looked earlier that day. After his game winning goal, Anna and Kristoff had gone down to the sidelines to congratulate him and Hans was all flushed and sweaty and looking incredibly sexy in his dirty uniform. He was all cleaned up now though, fashionable clothes and perfectly styled hair. 

Hans was watching her closely as they sat alone together at the table. She could tell by the look in his green eyes that there was something going on in his head. 

“What are you looking at?” Anna asked him in a coy tone. 

“You,” he responded simply. 

Anna laughed and rolled her eyes, taking another sip of her drink. When she looked back at him she noticed that something had softened in his expression. 

“Hey, are we, um,” Hans hesitated, opening and closing his mouth a few times before continuing on. “Are we seeing each other tonight?” 

“We’re seeing each other right now,” Anna responded playfully. 

The corner of his mouth curled up. “You know what I mean.” 

“I do,” she admitted. “And, yes. You’ll have to pretend to head off to your own residence hall when we’re all walking back, but I’ll text you an all clear once I get to my room.” 

“Ok. Ok, good,” he nodded and Anna could see him relax slightly. She had thought this whole little back and forth was just some playful flirting, but now she was realizing he had been sincerely asking. 

“You still feel like you need to ask?” she remarked. “After all this time?”

“I, well,” Hans gave a small shrug with one shoulder. “I wouldn’t want to just... _assume_.”

Anna glanced in the direction of the bar, confirming that Ryder and Merida were not on their way back nor looking in their direction. She then turned her attention back to Hans, leaning in close to him and placing a hand on his thigh under the table. His eyes widened at the contact and she heard him suck in a small breath. 

“Trust me,” she said quietly. “You can assume.”

Hans’s eyes were focused on her lips as his own hung partially open. She felt his fingertips slowly ghost across the inside of her wrist and forearm. “Can’t wait.” 

{ ~ }

“Oh!” Hans lifted his arms in the air after his dart made contact with the dartboard. “I almost hit the center with that one.”

“You’re doing pretty good,” Merida admitted, somewhat begrudgingly. “For a beginner, that is.”

“Oh my god,” Hans gasped as he retrieved his darts from the board. “Was that, like, an actual compliment?”

“Maybe a little one,” Merida responded with a smirk as she took the darts from him. 

“Well, I am honored and humbled nevertheless.” 

While Merida took her turn, Hans glanced over his shoulder to where Anna and Ryder were doing karaoke. Anna was smiling wide as she sang and danced around the stage. 

Maybe it had been silly, the way he felt the need to confirm for sure with Anna he would be ending up in her bed tonight. Hans had ended up there every Saturday night since early on in the semester. Things felt a bit different now though, now that he knew about this date thing. It was a date, right? Getting dressed up nice and going out to a fancy dinner definitely qualified as a date even if it was a school function. Whatever it was, Anna and Kristoff were growing closer to each other and it made Hans wonder for just how long his Saturdays with Anna - and his Sundays with Kristoff - would last. 

Anna caught his eye line as he watched her. She gave him a quick wink before continuing on with her singing and dancing. 

_God_ , the way Hans had wanted to kiss her before when she was leaned in close to him with her hand on his leg. His eyes traveled down from her face to the rest of her as she danced. Anna was wearing this dress that had a long line of tiny buttons down the front. He imagined Anna underneath him as he slowly undid those buttons, one by one. Giving attention to every new inch of soft skin that was revealed. The warm murmurs of pleasure that his touch would draw out of Anna. Her fingernails dragging across his scalp. 

“Earth to Hans,” Merida said as she began to shake him by the shoulder. 

“Huh?” he responded, snapping his head back in her direction. 

She held a dart up. “Your turn.”

“Yes, right,” Hans said, taking it from her. “Sorry, just spaced out there for a second.”

“Mmhm,” Merida responded, arching an eyebrow at him. 

~

“Step, fake, pivot, behind the back, score!” Ryder bounced around on the balls of his feet, recreating Hans’s game winning goal. They had left The Trading Post and the four of them were walking along a campus pathway, the yellow-orange glow from the street lights casting shadows as they passed under them. 

“You’re making it into a more impressive thing than it was,” Hans chuckled. As he looked ahead of them he saw a fork in the path coming up and he knew it was the perfect opportunity to make his play. “Welp, I’m this way,” he said, coming to stop and pointing along the right fork. Which wasn't a lie. Isle Hall _was_ in that direction. Hans just wasn’t going there quite yet.

They all said their goodbyes and then the three freshmen began walking along the left fork in the direction of the dorms. Ryder and Merida looked forward, but Anna’s eyes lingered on Hans a bit longer. Hans gave her a smile and wink - a promise that he wasn’t actually going that far - and Anna smiled back before looking away. 

Hans began walking then, occasionally looking back over his shoulder. Once they were out of sight, he ducked around the corner of an academic building and waited. 

{ ~ }

Anna and Ryder parted ways with Merida at the front door of her dorm and then headed on to Castle Hall where they both lived. They said their goodbyes to each other in the stairwell on the second floor and Ryder headed up to his room on the third floor. Anna took her phone out of her purse as she walked down the hall to her door, twisting it around in her hands with a smile as she thought about how many minutes she should let pass before texting an all clear to Hans. 

When Anna reached her door though, she froze. It was common for freshmen to have dry erase boards up on their dorm room doors. People could leave you cute notes or drawings or you could write your favorite quotes or song lyrics on it. But everything that had previously been written on Anna’s board was now erased as was replaced by four big, red letters. 

SLUT

Anna looked up and down the hall, but no one was around. Didn’t matter, she had a pretty good idea as to who did this. Madison, Chloe, maybe one of the other girls that had taken their side. Maybe they had done it all together as a group, laughing as they wrote the word. A wave of embarrassment hit her as she looked back at her door. How many people had seen it? 

Anna clenched her jaw and stepped forward, quickly erasing the word off the board with her fingers. No, she was _not_ going to let this bother her. She wasn’t going to let this stupid little thing ruin her night. She was done letting those girls make her feel shitty about herself. Anna took out her keys and unlocked her door. As soon as she stepped into her room she unlocked her phone and texted Hans. 

_all clear_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up: The rest of Hans and Anna’s night.


	46. Chapter 46

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Be who you are and fuck what everyone else thinks.” - Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One small (slightly spoilery) note before we get into the chapter: Anna and Hans use the words dominant and submissive here in this chapter, but there is obviously a difference between actual BDSM culture/established dom-sub relationships and two college kids just doing some exploring of what they like. But regardless, it’s always important to talk about these things with your partner and make sure everything is safe, sober, and consensual.

As soon as Hans was behind the safety of Anna’s closed dorm room door, he was wrapping his arms around her and kissing her. Anna kissed him back and he could feel her smile against his lips. Hans began walking her backwards towards her bed, one hand palming at her ass as the other cupped her face - touching her in all the ways he hadn’t been allowed to all night long. When Anna’s back made contact with her lofted bed, Hans broke the kiss to look down at her. 

“I really, _really_ like this dress,” he whispered. 

“Oh yeah?” she smiled. “What do you like about it?”

“These,” Hans traced his fingers along the buttons that ran down the full length of the front of her dress. “All night long, all I’ve been thinking about is undoing them one by one.”

“Hmm,” Anna hummed, “There are a lot of them. Might take a while.”

“Guess I better get started then.” Hans stepped back and then stood sideways to the bed, squatting slightly with his legs apart. He then laced his fingers together with his palms up to create a step. “Ladies first.”

“Oh my,” Anna crooned as she pulled off her heels. “What a gentleman.” 

She put a foot into his hands and then boosted herself up onto the bed before laying down. Hans toed off his own shoes before climbing up after her. Kneeling between her legs, he pulled his shirt up and off over his head before tossing onto the floor. Anna bit at the corner of her lip as her hungry eyes swept over his now bare torso. 

“What are you looking at?” he asked, imitating her teasing from earlier in the night. 

“You,” she responded, playing along. 

Hans smiled at her before lowering himself down on her and kissing her. His lips moved down, from her mouth to her neck and collarbone. He trailed a straight line down her sternum until he reached the fabric of her dress. He reached up with his hand and carefully undid the first button before placing another kiss to the newly exposed skin. Taking his time Hans did it again and again with each button, his lips traveling down between Anna’s breasts and to her stomach. Small shuttered breaths escape from Anna as her fingernails drag across his scalp. 

Once all the buttons were undone, Hans pushed the fabric of her dress to either side, revealing her bra and panties - black and lacy and standing in contrast against her creamy, freckled skin. Despite how many times Hans had been with Anna like this, the sight of her still caused him to suck in a breath. 

“Shit, Anna,” he nearly whispered. “Do you know how sexy you are?” 

She let out a small laugh. “You know you don’t have to use lines on me anymore, right?”

“No, I mean it. Everything about you is so sexy. Your skin,” Hans kissed across the tops of her breasts, “your freckles,” his mouth moved lower, “your curves,” he kissed his way down her stomach, “your thighs,” Hans said as his mouth reached them. 

“My _thighs?_ ” she laughed. “Ok, now I know you're lying.”

“No, no lie. Everything about you is sexy,” Hans said before trailing a line of kisses back up her stomach towards her breasts. 

“I’m sure you say that to all the girls. And all the boys for that matter.”

Hans paused his mouth’s explorations to look up at her face. Anna looked back at him with eyes that were filled with desire and sparkling from the string lights hung up around her bed. It wasn’t a negative comment. She wasn’t making fun of him. She was just teasing a bit. Still, he moved back up her body until they were at eye level with each other. 

“Does it bother you?”

“What? You still using lines on me after all this time?” 

“No. The ‘all the boys’ thing.”

“I-,” Anna blinked and her expression softened. “Of course that doesn’t bother me.”

“You say ‘of course’ as if not something that bothers quite a lot of people,” he challenged her. 

“Well it doesn’t bother me,” Anna responded, a quiet seriousness in her voice. “Obviously.”

“It’s never bothered you? Not even a little.”

“No,” Anna squeezed at his bicep. “If it did, would I have ever even started hooking up with you?”

“You didn’t know I was bi the first time we had sex,” he pointed out. “I didn’t tell you that until we were up on the roof after.”

“Hans,” she said, leveling her eyes at him. “I saw you making out with a guy in the middle of the dance floor. Through my _incredible_ powers of deductive reasoning I was able to figure out all on my own that you weren’t straight.”

“Ok, ok,” he smiled. “Fair enough. What did you think when you saw that, me kissing another guy?”

“Honestly?” Anna sighed. “A bit disappointed.” 

“Di-disappointed?” Hans felt a fear prickling up his spine but then Anna’s eyes went wide and she sucked in a breath. 

“No, oh no! I didn’t mean it like that!” she said quickly, bringing her hands up and pressing them against his bare chest. “Fuck, I’m sorry, that came out wrong. It’s just that when I saw that I assumed you were gay. Which, it was totally wrong for me to just make assumptions like that, I know. But I was initially disappointed because I thought it meant I had no chance of hooking up with you that night.” 

Hans felt himself relax and he smiled down at her. “You showed up at that party hoping for a chance with me?”

Anna gave him a playful smile. “Maybe.”

Hans brought his face closer to hers, brushing their noses together. “And yet you dodged my kiss at the party.”

“I was making you work for it,” she responded before giving him a quick peck on the mouth. 

“So you never had second thoughts?” he asked. “There are some girls that have a lot of reservations, they get weirded out by it.”

“Well those girls are stupid,” Anna declared. “Actually, I think it’s kind of sexy.”

Hans arched an eyebrow. That was a new one. “The idea of me sleeping with guys is sexy to you?”

“No, not-,” Anna brought a hand to her face and shook her head slightly. “That’s not what I mean. It’s more… you knowing yourself. Knowing who you are, what you want. And fuck what anyone else thinks about it. It’s the confidence. It’s sexy.” 

Hans knew that confidence wasn’t always _actually_ there for him, but the fact that Anna saw him as having it meant a lot. And Kristoff was lucky, Hans thought. Whenever he was finally ready to come out to Anna, he would find true acceptance. Hans always expected that would be the case, but it felt good to know for sure. 

“I actually, um,” Anna chewed at the corner of her lip slightly. “I had a question I’ve been wanting to ask you about all that.”

“Ok,” Hans said cautiously. 

“If it’s insensitive or whatever you totally don’t have to answer.” 

“I feel like I need to settle in for this one,” Hans said as he rolled them over so that they were both laying on their sides, their legs tangled together and Hans’s arm slung over Anna’s waist. “Ok. What is it?”

“Last weekend, when we were playing truth or dare and we were doing the ages that we lost our virginity, you mentioned bottoming.”

“Yes…”

“So that’s, that’s a thing you do?”

“Well it was _truth_ or dare, Anna. What kind of person would I be if I _lied_ during truth or dare?” Anna laughed and Hans smiled back at her. “I like to do both,” he clarified. “Top sometimes, bottom sometimes, depends on my mood and what the other guy is into.” 

“So you’re vers?”

“You know what vers means?” he asked, surprised. 

“Of course I know what it means,” Anna said, rolling her eyes. “I don’t live under a rock.” 

Oh god how much Hans wanted to tell her the story of how he had casually tried working the word versatile into conversation with Kristoff only for it to go completely over his head. Anna would laugh and say how that sounded like classic Kristoff. But, he obviously couldn’t do that. 

“You seem surprised,” Hans said instead. 

“A bit. When we’re together you’re always so,” Anna’s eyes dropped down to where her hand was pressed against his chest. “I don’t know, you like to take charge, pull my hair and all that.”

“You’re equating topping and bottoming with dominant and submissive, which isn’t necessarily true. And there’s no rule that says you’re only allowed to like one thing.”

“I guess that’s true,” Anna said as she looked back up at him. There was some trepidation in her voice, but there was an eager look in her eyes. “But do you ever like to be more submissive in bed? At least sometimes?” 

“Yeah,” he nodded, “I do.”

“And you have no real preference for any of it? Top or bottom, dominant or submissive?”

“No.”

“ _Really?_ ”

“I’m bi, stop trying to force me to make a choice. It’s against my nature.” 

Anna laughed at that and Hans smiled in return. 

“What, um,” Anna’s hand moved across his chest, her fingernails lightly dragging across his skin. “What kind of things do you like to have done to you when you’re being submissive?” 

_I like it when Kristoff picks me up and tosses me around a bit._

“Um, different things,” he said. “Being pinned down, getting my hair pulled, stuff like that.” 

“We do the hair pulling thing,” Anna noted.

“Yes,” he smiled. “That’s a favorite of yours.” Hans thought about the second time they had sex, spontantiously in the middle of the afternoon, up against her desk with both their pants pushed down to their knees. Anna begging him to pull her hair while he fucked her from behind. 

“It’s not like hair pulling is that racy or whatever,” Anna said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “People do way more intense, dramatic things in bed than just that.” 

“Do you… want me to do other kinds of things besides just pulling your hair?” Hans ventured, hoping he was right that that was the direction Anna was trying to take the conversation. 

“Like…,” Anna hesitated, but then the corner of her mouth quirked up. “Like spanking?”

Well. 

“Yeah,” Hans nodded a couple of times. “I could do that, if you’d like it.”

“As long as it’s not _too_ too hard, then yeah, that could be fun.” 

“Here,” he said as he lowered his hand down to her rear end. Hans lifted his hand and then quickly brought it back down, just hard enough to make a sound as his palm made contact with her skin. Anna’s eyes widened as she sucked in a breath. “You like that?” he asked as he rubbed at the spot he just hit. 

“Yeah, I do,” Anna answered, the husky tone in her voice making his cock twitch. “What other things would you want to do to me?”

Fucking hell. 

“Can I put my hand on your neck?” he asked. 

“Like, like choking me?”

“No, no,” Hans shook his head. “Not actually choking, just my hand being there.”

“Hmm,” Anna scrunched up her nose. “No, I don’t like that idea.”

“Ok, that’s fine,” he said quickly. “Um, can I stick my fingers in your mouth?”

Anna snorted. “What? Is that sexy?”

“It can be if you do it right.” Hans took hold of one of Anna’s wrists and lifted her hand up to his face. “Want me to show you?”

Anna looked from her fingers to his mouth and then back up to his eyes. “Ok,” she said quietly. 

Hans opened his mouth and then closed it around Anna’s pointer finger. He swirled his tongue against the digit and then slowly, and while holding her gaze, dragged it out of his mouth. There was a captivated expression on Anna’s face as she watched Hans repeat the action with her middle and then index fingers. 

When he finished, Anna opened her mouth, an invitation. Hans shifted the arm he was laying on so that he could reach his hand up to her face, slipping a finger past her lips. Anna’s cheeks hollowed as she sucked at his finger, her tongue swirling around it as her eyes stayed locked on his. The sight and feel of it sent a jolt right to his groin. 

Hans rolled her over onto her back as he added a second finger into her mouth and slid his other hand down below the waistband of her panties. Anna opened her legs, allowing him access. Hans could feel his arousal swelling as both his hands pumped fingers into her in rhythm. Anna sucked on his fingers harder as she rocked herself against his lower hand. 

“You like it when I do this?” he asked her, hearing the gravel in his own voice. 

Anna nodded. 

“You want me to be in control tonight?”

Anna hummed and nodded her head again. 

“Good. Now, take my pants off and suck my cock,” he said before pulling back his hands. As soon as he took his fingers out of her Anna was sitting up and shucking her dress off her shoulders, tossing it to the floor. Hans rolled onto his back and Anna straddled his thighs, her hands instantly at his belt. 

Once his pants were off and tossed to the side, Hans laced his fingers together and then put his hands behind his head as he looked down at her. That earned him a slight eyeroll from Anna, as she positioned herself between his legs. 

Hans instinctively bucked his hips upwards as her mouth closed around him. Anna took a firm grip of him with one hand as her hot mouth took in more and more of him with each down stroke. Her red lips stretching around him and those eyes - _those eyes_ \- looking up at him through her lashes. Anna made an unexpected movement with her tongue and then hummed, the vibration sending electricity through his body. 

He needed to stop her. Now. There was still so much he wanted to do tonight. Hans reached down and took her face by the chin, pulling her mouth off of him and directing her to look at him.

“Get a condom and put it on me,” he instructed. 

Anna sat up and reached over the side of her lofted bed to get what she needed out of the top drawer of her dresser. After rolling on the condom she slicked on a bit of lube before looking to him, waiting for his next instructions. 

“Ride me,” he ordered. 

She stripped off her bra and panties and moved to straddle him. Anna angled her hips and began to sink onto him, but once his head was inside of her she paused and popped her hips back upwards. She repeated the motions a couple of times, allowing only the very tip of his cock to go in and out of her. Hans let out a frustrated groan, causing Anna to smirk at him. 

“I thought I was supposed to be in control tonight,” Hans grumbled. 

“You are when I let you,” Anna said, moving her hips again. “I’m just having a bit of fun for a moment.” 

“Anna,” he whined as he dug his fingers into the flesh of her thighs. “ _Please_.”

“Ok, ok,” she said as she began to actually lower herself onto him. 

Hans bit down on his lower lip as he filled her completely. _Fuck_ , she always felt so good. 

“Start slowly,” he told her. “Give me a good show.”

As she began to rock her hips, Anna sucked two of her fingers into her mouth before reaching down between her legs, seeking out her clint. She let out a soft moan as she closed her eyes and tilted her head to the side. Her other hand came up to squeeze at her breast, her fingers pinching at her nipple. 

Hans ran his hands up and down her freckled thighs as he watched her. It blew his mind sometimes, just how beautiful she was. 

“Come here,” he instructed. 

Anna leaned forward, placing her hands on the mattress on either side of his head and continued moving her hips in a steady rhythm. Hans reached a hand up, first cupping her cheek and then threading his fingers through the hair on the side of her head. 

“Closer,” he said as he tightened his hand into fist around her hair and pulled her towards him. Anna’s arms gave out and she collapsed on top of him. Now chest to chest, they began kissing, Anna briefly biting lightly at his lower lip. Hans let his other hand travel down her side until it reached the soft skin of her ass. Raising his hand up, Hans paused for a moment before bringing it back down with a _smack_. Anna gasped in response, breaking their kiss. 

“Faster,” he demanded, giving her ass another smack, and Anna instantly complied. 

_Smack_

“Fuck me harder, Anna.” Hans growled in her ear.

_Smack_

“How does my dick feel?” 

“So good,” she responded, her voice wavering. Hans watched her face as it hovered above his - her eyes closed, her mouth open, and her brows knitted together - and Hans knew she was close. 

_Smack_

“Are you going to make yourself come on my dick?” 

“Oh god, I’m gun-,” Anna’s voice hitched and Hans could feel her legs trembling. 

“Yes, that’s it,” he encouraged her. 

_Smack_

“Come for me, Anna.” Hans reached up with his mouth, kissing at her neck and letting his teeth graze across her skin. He then felt Anna’s whole body shudder and her walls clench around him and it took all of his self control to not come right along with her. The movements of Anna’s body slowed to a stop, her breath still heavy as she lay limp on top of him. 

He slipped out of her before rolling her over onto her back. When Anna’s head hit the pillow, her red hair splayed out across it, messy and wild. Her aqua eyes shined up at him as a dreamy, post-orgasmic expression hung on her face. He ran his hands up and down her body, completely naked and all there for him to touch. 

Hans shifted her legs to one side and Anna went with the motion, twisting herself to roll onto one hip while the top half of her body stayed flat against the mattress. 

“It didn’t hurt, right?” he asked as he placed his hand on the spot he had been spanking her. 

“No, it was good.” 

“It’s a bit red,” he noted, brushing his fingers against her skin. 

“Yeah?” Anna craned her neck to get a look. “Oh yeah, you left a little mark.” 

“Here,” Hans shifted his body and dipped his down so he could place a gentle kiss against the skin that he had turned red. 

Anna laughed. “You’re literally being an ass kisser right now.”

“Yeah,” Hans smiled up at her. “but it’s a really nice ass to kiss.” 

He placed a few more kisses to the spot before beginning to trace a trail up along the outer part of her thigh. He then shifted her legs so that her hips were back flat against the mattress and he settled himself in between them. With his eyes fixed on hers, Hans pressed his lips against the sensitive skin between her legs. 

“Hans,” she whispered and damn it sounded so good when she said his name like that. With his tongue, he slowly traced a trail from her opening to her clit and Hans felt her tremble in response. 

“Do you want me inside of you again?” he asked in a feathery tone before repeating the action with his tongue. 

“Yes,” she responded with need.

Hans peppered a few light kisses “Do you want me to take control of you again?”

“Mmmhmm,” she hummed. 

“You want me to pin your hands above your head and fuck you hard till you come?” He curled his fingers inside of her as he asked the question, making her jolt.

“Oh fuck,” Anna cursed, her face contorting in pleasure. “Yes, yes, _please_.”

Hans pushed up from his position between her legs to hover over for a moment. Then, in a swift motion, Hans then took hold of Anna’s arms and lifted them above her head. He pinned her wrists down onto the pillow with one of his hands and then used the other to line himself up at her entrance. With one swift motion he filled her again, causing her to gasp. 

“You like this?” he asked as he began moving inside her, gesturing with his eyebrows up to where he had her wrists pinned.

“I do,” Anna breathed. “I like it all. We should try new things more often.” 

Hans started moving his hips faster. “Yeah? Like what kind of things?” 

“Like role play. I could be a french maid and you could be-, _oh_ ,” Anna moaned, cutting her words. After a deep breath she spoke again. “You could be, ya know, a french guy that I’m a maid for.”

“Very original,” Hans smirked, but kept his rhythm steady. 

“Mmmm, vully vu catchay avey mah?” Anna purred in the worst French accent he had ever heard. 

Hans stopped thrusting as laughter erupted out of him. He released his hold on her wrists as he dropped his head down so that his forehead was resting on Anna’s shoulder. 

“What?” Anna demanded but Hans just kept laughing. She gave him a light whack on the shoulder. “You’re still inside of me and you’re laughing at me? Seriously?”

“I’m sorry.” Hans lifted his head back up. “But what the fuck was that?”

“That was real French! It’s a line from that song from that movie.”

“I know, but I don’t think you pronounced a single word correctly. And your accent was terrible, you sounded like Pepé Le Pew.”

“First of all, rude. Second of all, come on,” Anna bucked her hips up, “let’s keep going.” 

Hans began moving again but after a little bit he could see a mischievous smile threatening to break across Anna’s face. 

“Ooh, that feels so good, monsieur,” she said in the same horrible accent while trying to contain her laughter. 

“Nope.” Hans stuck two of his fingers in her mouth. “There, that’s better.” 

Anna narrowed her eyes at him and then bit down on his fingers. 

“See, that’s not going to deter me,” Hans whispered in a silvery tone. “I _like_ getting bit.” 

Anna used her tongue to push his fingers out of her mouth. “You’re ridiculous,” she laughed. 

“Mmm,” Hans hummed as he nuzzled at her neck. “Being told I’m ridiculous is also a big turn on of mine. It gets me so hot.”

“Oh my _god_ ,” Anna said as she smacked him on the shoulder. Hans just kissed at her neck some more, her scent overtaking him. He then began to increase the speed and force with which he was fucking her. “ _Oh_ my god,” she repeated, her voice changing from laughter to breathy pleasure. 

Hans pushed off the mattress, sitting back and hooking and hand around the back of each of her thighs. He pushed down, bending her body and changing the angle with which he was driving into her. 

“Shii-,” Anna breathed out, her eyes squeezing tight as one hand clutched at the pillow above her head. He pressed her thighs together, making her feel even tighter then she already was, and Anna moaned again. 

“Yeah?” Hans panted as he tightened his grip on her thighs. “Is this how you want it?”

“No,” she breathed and Hans froze. “I want,” Anna reached up and clasped a hand onto his forearm. “I want you closer.”

Hans moved lighting fast, instantly dropped his hold on her legs, laying back forward and capturing her mouth with his. Anna wrapped her arms around the back of his neck as she kissed him back, hungry and unrestrained, her thighs clamped tight around his waist. 

They stayed like that, bodies pressed tight together as he fucked her with an ever increasing fervency. Hans could feel the familiar building and swelling sensation inside of him as his hips slapped against her faster and faster. Anna scratched against his scalp as the fingernails on her other hand dug into his shoulder. His body thrummed and Hans knew he was close. 

“Anna, Anna,” he pleaded urgently, his lips ghosting across hers. 

“Hans,” she gasped in return and then he felt it, her whole body going tight as she arched her back off the mattress. Hans made a few more quick and desperate thrusts before the wave inside of him crashed and he came with his face buried in her hair. 

He kissed her cheek a few times, feeling her smile, before slowly slipping out of her. 

{ ~ }

Anna lay curled up against Hans’s side, her hand on his stomach as her finger tips traced the lines of his defined muscles. Peering up at his face, she saw that his eyes were closed. Anna knew he wasn’t asleep though, he had an arm around her shoulders and his fingers were drawing circles on her upper arm. He must be tired, she figured, especially after that game today. 

Anna’s thoughts drifted back to the message that was on her door when she first arrived back at her dorm earlier that night. She had been able to put it out of her head once Hans had arrived, but in this still silence, it returned to her mind. 

“Do you think it’s bad to have sex with someone you only just met that day?” she asked him. 

“No,” Hans responded simply. After a moment of silence he blinked his eyes open and looked down at her. “Why do you ask? Is everything ok?”

“Yeah. Well. No, not totally.” Anna looked down to where her hand was pressed against his bare skin. “Tonight, when I first got back to my room, I saw that someone had written the word slut on the dry erase board on my door” 

“What?” Hans responded, some shock in his voice. He rolled onto his side to face her. “Who would do that?”

“Who do you think?” she murmured. 

“Those nasty bitches,” Hans scowled. “Don’t pay attention to them, all they do is spread lies about you.” 

Anna sighed. “I mean, _yes_ , me trying to get Joe to cheat on Madison was a lie and me trying to get Ryder to cheat on Chloe was a lie, but I _did_ sleep with Joe. The first night I met him. This whole thing happened because I slept with a guy I barely knew.”

“You barely knew me the first time we had sex,” Hans pointed out. 

“Yeah but you didn’t turn out to be a lying, conniving, manipulative asshole like Joe.” She sighed but Hans didn’t say anything in response. “I haven’t told anybody this,” Anna continued on. “But that night Joe grabbed my arm at the party, when he grabbed my arm he said _‘You forget that I know the kind of girl you are.’_ Like, I guess because I had slept with so easily the first time that meant I was always going to be available to him or some shit.”

She watched as Hans’s expression hardened. “If I murdered him, would you help me hide the body and then lie to the cops for me?”

“ _Hans_.”

“Seriously though. You know his opinion means nothing, right?” Hans asked as he brushed some of her hair back behind her ear. “He’s just a huge piece of shit. And so are those girls. And you deserve so much more than their bullshit.”

“Yeah, I know. It just sucks when people say shitty things about you.”

A pensive expression passed across his face. “I understand,” he said quietly. 

“So you don’t think I’m a slut?”

“I-, uh, no.”

“You hesitated.”

“No I didn’t, I-,” Hans rubbed his forehead. “It’s a stupid word. I don’t think _anybody_ is a slut.” 

“Then,” Anna sighed. “Then what am I?”

“You,” Hans cupped her face in his hand, “are Anna Bell. You are both fiery and sweet, serious when it is needed and silly when it is required. And you’re good at karaoke and terrible at accents. You are an artist.” 

“No, I’m not.”

“Yes you are. You are surprisingly well adjusted considering everything I’ve learned about your parents. And you’re a loyal friend. And you’re fucking gorgeous. And you like sex.” Hans moved his hand to her shoulder and dipped his head down to press a light kiss to the side of her neck. He trailed a few more kisses up, towards her ear. “And you’re good at it,” he whispered in a voice that made her shudder. Hans then lifted his head back up to look at her. “And you shouldn’t feel embarrassed by that. It’s like what we were talking about earlier, about me being bi. Be who you are and fuck what everyone else thinks.” 

“Yeah,” Anna said with a small nod, trying to keep her voice steady. “You’re right. Thank you.”

Listening to the words Hans said, all the things he saw in her, it made Anna’s heart nearly burst.   
But that feeling quickly turned into an ache. As she looked into those green eyes of his that were looking back at her with such kindness, she knew that she wanted him to stay. Anna had thought she was used to it by now, Hans always getting dressed and leaving back out the window at some point each Saturday night. But she found herself desperately wishing that he would stay. That they would fall asleep cocooned together, wake up in each other’s arms, and then fuck again in the daylight. 

But no matter how much she wanted that, Anna knew she could never ask that of Hans. He already accepted so many of her demands - lying to Kristoff, lying to Ryder, lying to everybody - how could she ever ask more from him?

Anna scooted closer to Hans on the bed and pulled him into a hug, hiding her face against his shoulder. “Thank you,” she repeated. 

“Of course,” he responded, hugging her back. 

“Do you ever feel guilty?” she asked him in a quiet voice. 

“About what?”

“This.” Anna ran a hand up and down his back as she pressed her lips to his collarbone. “Us.”

There was a long silence before Hans spoke. “We’re not doing anything wrong,” he said, and it sounded almost as if he were trying to convince himself as much as he was trying to convince her. “But if, if you want to stop-,”

“I don’t,” Anna said quickly, cutting him off. She pulled back from the hug to look at him. “I don’t want to stop.”

“Ok,” he nodded. 

“It’s just, like, I know Kristoff and I both agreed that we could see other people. But what if I’m the only one _actually_ doing it? What if Kristoff only ever agreed to it because I pushed for it? Or, what if he did want that initially and now he doesn’t want that anymore but he’s too afraid to say anything? I don’t want to hurt him, you know?”

“I understand,” Hans said, looking down. 

“I guess, I don’t know, I think I might feel better if I knew he actually was with other girls.” Anna groaned and brought a hand up to her face. “That sounds so stupid, I know. It’s not that I _want_ that, per se, it’s just, I don’t know-,” 

“He is.”

“Wh-, wait what?” Anna blinked. 

“He is,” Hans repeated, lifting his eyes back up to meet hers. “Sleeping with other people, that is.”

“Are you serious?” Anna felt her stomach drop. “How do you know?”

“We talk,” Hans shrugged with one shoulder. “Ya know, guy talk. When it’s just the two of us.”

“When you guys hang out to watch baseball games?” Anna asked, remembering that one Sunday she discovered Hans over at Kristoff’s apartment. 

“Yep,” he nodded. 

“You two talk about that stuff? Like, he talks about the other girls that he’s sleeping with?” 

“Yeah.”

“What kind of stuff does he say about them?”

“Um...” Hans said slowly, apprehension on his face. 

“No, I know,” Anna waved her hand. “I know that was a stupid question, you don’t have to tell me and break, like, bro code or whatever. Pretend I didn’t ask.” Anna chewed at the corner of her lip as she pictured the scene in her mind, Hans and Kristoff sitting on Kristoff’s couch with a couple of beers and talking about _other_ girls. 

Hans looked at her concerned. “I wasn’t trying to upset you. I just-, you said you wanted to know.”

“You didn’t upset me,” she said as she moved closer to him and laid her head on his chest. “It’s ok.” 

Anna wasn’t jealous. She couldn’t be. Because how could she feel jealous when she was, right at that moment, lying naked in bed with Hans? By what right could she want Kristoff and Hans to stop being with other people when she herself wanted to continue being with both of them? 

Anna had gone to Elsa on this, seeking her advice on what to do with this situation she found herself in with Kristoff and Hans. Elsa’s advice had been simple - figure out what you want. But that was the problem, Anna wanted both of them. She wanted only them and for them to both want only her. That was insane, right? It was an impossible thing. 

So, no, maybe Anna wasn’t a slut. But she was definitely a little bit selfish. 

{ ~ }

Hours later Hans was lying alone in his bed and staring up at his cleaning in the darkness. He picked up his phone to check the time. 

_4:27 AM_

Fuck. 

Was that a royally fucked up thing that he had done that night? 

Anna was feeling guilty over the possible idea that she was sleeping with other people but Kristoff wasn’t. Kristoff _was_ sleeping with other people, though. Hans, specifically. But Hans couldn’t actually _tell_ Anna that he was sleeping with Kristoff, because that would mean outing Kristoff. And that was something Hans could never, would never do. So what was he supposed to do? Just let Anna stay feeling guilty? And maybe it wasn’t a lie, maybe Kristoff _was_ sleeping with other girls too. He had never mentioned anything about that before, and Hans wasn’t sure when Kristoff would even have the time to do that, but it was possible. 

Hans sighed as he rolled over onto one side. He needed to stop trying to justify what he had done. It was a lie. It was a big lie. But he had been lying to both of them for most of the semester, hadn’t he? A lie by omission was still a lie. But by that metric Anna and Kristoff had been lying to each other too. So, Hans wasn’t the bad guy here. He wasn’t. 

He thought about the words he had said to Anna that night. _‘You deserve so much more than their bullshit.’_ It was true when it came to Joe and Madison and Chloe, but was it true when it came to Hans too? 

With a groan he rolled over onto his other side and adjusted his pillow. Hans knew this was going to be another sleepless night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We’ve reached 200K words! *screams* I can’t believe how big this story has gotten. Thanks to all of you who have stuck with it, I can’t tell you how much your support means!
> 
> Also, a shout out to Rhianne and her fic [Rise To Me](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27087817/chapters/66142171) where Anna actually knows how to speak French. It’s lovely and amazing and you should definitely go read it.


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